Way of the Blaster
by Squall67584
Summary: On a backwater world, a small band of peaceful miners are harassed by a tycoon and his gang of thugs. Saying enough is enough, they hire two unsuspecting spacers to help in their defense. But the two are more than they seem. Remnants of the Force sequel
1. Chapter 1

Hello there! Well, here's the follow up story that I mentioned in my final author note of Remnants of the Force. This story follows the two characters introduced in that story, Randal Sarn and Rika Tymor, and picks up two years after the events in Remnants of the Force. I view the first story as a sort of pilot episode and all subsequent stories, including this one here, will more than likely be much shorter. Again, with most of the stories I've posted up here, it is actually finished, so there's no chance of the story never being completed. I'll post a chapter a week or so, so stay tuned! If you like what you read, let me know! It's good to know that someone out there enjoys reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. Well, without further ado, I give you Way of the Blaster!

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Chapter 1 Breaking Point

_Dienzo III. Outskirts of the Middle Rim._

Mining was naturally hard work, and it didn't help that the hills surrounding his village were mainly made up of the tough and drill head eating magnium. As Giles Lancor momentarily took a break from operating his pneumatic drill and wiped the sweat away from his brow with a dust covered gray glove, his entire body felt numb. The constant jarring vibrations from the drill had coursed through his body for the past nine hours straight. And though he knew that it was brutal to his body, he found enjoyment in his work. After all, it was good honest work; free from the overbearing boss constantly looking over one's shoulder, always driving you harder to get every last ounce of work out of you. Giles found pleasure in his work because he, like other claim holders of New Beginning, was his own boss and was looking out for his own interests and not a corporation's.

While the magnium brought a small profit from the processing plants in town, everyone was really mining to find the most precious ore this side of Imperial Center; Aurodium. Not much of the precious ore had been found yet in the two years since New Beginning was settled, but everyone had a feeling that the hills of Red Canyon were full of Aurodium veins just waiting for the determined miner to find and strike it rich. If that were to happen, that particular miner's family would be set for life for generations.

It was this thought that always gave Giles the extra incentive to carry on, and just before he reactivated his drill to get back to work, he heard the sweet chiming sound of the dinner bell ringing. New Beginning wasn't just a small settlement of miners and dreamers all looking for a brighter future, but it was a small close knit community that bonded as if they were all family, or at least a very diverse extended one.

Giles gladly undid the power line to his drill and fought the massively heavy tool back to a leaning position against the mine's wall and set out to wash up before he sat down for dinner. As he exited the mine, the deep orange sun was setting towards the east and the light shined directly into the mine's entrance. As he squinted at the welcome bright light, he removed his gloves and shoved them into his back pocket.

As he walked down the trail that lead back into the center of the village, other miners were exiting their chosen spots in the multiple faceted hill side and smiled at each other as they all headed into the center of the village. Giles shook hands with several of his fellow miners and paused briefly at the village's small moisture collector in the center of the village and let the cool water run into his hands. After he splashed his face and wiped it on an offered towel by one of the many house wives that saw the running of the village proper, he took his seat at the large long table where everyone sat and ate their meals together.

As everyone found their seats and plates and bowls began to be passed around, everyone paused as they all heard thunder rolling in the distance. At first, it sounded like a storm out on the open plains, but after a few seconds, the sound didn't dissipate, it grew louder. Realization hit them all at once.

"Run!" one of the miners shouted as he jumped from the table.

"Get the women and children inside!" Giles yelled as he tried to get the attention of several of the other miners, but the grip of fear was now in full swing.

Giles ran around the village center, trying to make sure everyone got inside their homes and were safe, but as the roaring sound came closer, panic and chaos took over, and reason disappeared. Before anyone could properly get inside, the first of the swoops came over the hill.

The swoops were loud and obnoxious, but their riders were the real threat. Once one appeared, more kept pouring over the hill, their riders yelling and hollering at the top of their lungs as they sped through the village, aiming for anyone who was caught out in the open. All of the riders speed around and darted between the houses, all the while firing blaster pistols into the air and randomly into the houses. One of the riders stopped his swoop next to the long table, grabbed a nerf rib with his teeth, and then kicked the entire table over, spilling everything onto the ground.

Another pulled a grenade out of his saddle bag and lobbed it haphazardly into one of the homes. With a fiery explosion, the house erupted, sending flaming debris everywhere.

Giles, fuming in anger, ran at one of the riders. Though he was unarmed and had no idea what he was going to do if he caught him, he felt he had to do something. But before he got close, something heavy and cold slammed into his back and he fell face first into the dirt. When he rolled over, he saw the leader of the swoop gang, a wretched near human named Kaul, sneering evilly at him.

"Sickle Riders! Roll out!" Kaul yelled as he revved his swoop's engine and took off leaving a rising cloud of dust in his wake. The other riders all began to laugh loudly and congratulate each other as they tore out of the small and devastated village, leaving all of the chaos that they had wrought in their wake.

Giles stood and watched the last of the gang members disappear over the hill, and continued to stand there until the sounds of their loud engines died away. Angrily, he spat on the ground and turned around to start rebuilding after this latest raid.

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Hours later, after the majority of the mess was picked up as best as they could, the villagers of New Beginning gathered around the up righted table and debated what was to come next.

"This was all that Dalledos's doing! We all know he has those Sickle Riders on his payroll!" one of the miner's wives said. She was followed by half of the village agreeing, and the other half calling Dalledo a variety of vulgar names.

"But why would he do this? We have nothing he wants," another villager said.

"Oh yes we do. He knows just as well as we do what's in these hills, and he wants it all for himself. Always has ever since he took over the Dorvalla Mining operation on this planet," an old weathered Rodian named Tolas Los said.

"Well he can have it. I'm too old to be hassled with this sort of crap. I've got a family I have to think about," an old Arkanian miner named Otzz Churhee said. This was followed by another round of rumbling from everyone present. Giles stood up and motioned for everyone to get quiet.

"Of course we know who it is whose behind all this, there's no question about that. The real question that we need to be asking ourselves is what are we going to do about it?"

"What do you mean?" Tolas asked.

"Well, are we just going to sit back and let him continue to harass us like this? We all know that every raid gets worse than the one before."

"What are you suggesting? That we fight back?" one of the villagers said in a mildly shocked sounding voice.

"Why not? There's more of us than there is of them," Giles said. Several of the villagers went quiet, but others laughed at the idea.

"You must have been hit on the head harder than you thought," Otzz said as he stood from his seat.

"No, I don't think so. Listen, we've all come here for our own reasons. Like you Otzz, what reason did you come here?" Otzz looked around and saw that the entire village was now looking at him, waiting for him to respond.

"I came here looking for credits, like everyone else."

"We all know that, but why did you choose this planet, why did you choose to mine? There's plenty of other jobs you could have taken in this galaxy if you just wanted credits."

"Well," the old man said as he looked at the ground. "I've had plenty of jobs in my lifetime, but mining out here gave me my own schedule, I guess. If I wanted to take a day off to be with my family, I could."

"Exactly," Giles said as he looked around at the multitude of faces in the crowd. "Freedom brought us here. Sure the work is hard and we get little financial reward for it, but we're free. Free to make our own schedule, free to do the work that we want to do. We don't have to answer to anyone's orders, or grovel every time a boss or supervisor comes by. We're out here because we want to be, pure and simple. But what we have here is ours, and not anyone or anybody is going to come here and take it away from us. I know it's not going to be easy, and in fact it's probably going to be dangerous. But I'm sure that every one of you would be willing to fight, if need be, to preserve that freedom we have here. Am I right?" At first everyone was just quiet, but eventually everyone started to mumble in agreement.

"Sure, we're all willing to keep what we have here, but exactly how are we going to go that?" Tolas Los asked. At this, the villagers again went silent.

"I'll fight. Hell, I know how to use a blaster," a young man said from the side.

"Cal! Don't interrupt!" the young man's mother said.

"No, Cal's right. We all may be old and worn down, but young Cal there is still young, not even in his prime yet. He has the right idea! If we all stand together and put up a fight against Dalledo, he's going to have to back down and leave us alone!" Giles said triumphantly.

"All right, Giles, you've made your point. But you still haven't said how we're going to do it. In case you haven't looked around, we're just simple miners, not soldiers," Tolas said as he crossed his arms. Giles let out a heavy sigh through his nose as he placed his hands into his back pockets.

"I know, I know. We've got the numbers, and we've all got hunting rifles and such, but you're right. We're not soldiers. To be honest, I wouldn't have the foggiest clue as to what to do to set up a defense."

"Well, it was fun while it lasted, I guess," Otzz said as he turned to leave.

"Now hold on. I said I didn't know how to go about defending this village, but that doesn't mean we can't hire someone who does." Out of everything that was said at the meeting on this night, nothing else made everyone instantly go as silent as this statement did.

"You want to pay someone to defend our village?" an old woman said.

"No, not pay someone to do it for us, but to teach us how to defend ourselves." Giles was answered with more blank stares and a few murmurings about how his idea was ludicrous.

"Listen, just a minute ago, we were all onboard for fighting to save our village. Now when I mention that we may have to spend a few credits to help save our way of life, you instantly abandon the idea?"

"It's not that, Giles," Tolas said, "it's just that so many of us have invested nearly everything we've got into our lives here. The mines haven't produced anything larger than a few dust particles in the past few months. Now you're wanting us to spend what little we have saved up to hire some mercenaries? It's not that we're not willing, it's just that those credits were going to be used to buy food for our children and blankets to keep them warm."

"I know it's difficult, but we can get through this if we all stick together. We can save credits by planting gardens and banding together to make ends meet. We've always lived together as if we were one large family, maybe it's time we actually came together and really acted like one."

It took a few moments of inner discussion before everyone seemed to come to a general consensus.

"All right, Giles. We'll all pitch in and do our share. But where are you going to find someone who can help us?" Tolas asked.

"In the morning I'll take as much magnium as I can into Stonehaven and try to find someone there who can help us."

"Well, I hope you find someone quick, for your sake," Tolas said as everyone stood from the table and began to head back towards their homes. As the crowd dispersed, the young man named Cal Damiel craned his head over his fellow villagers and caught a glimpse of shimmering blonde hair. He not so politely pushed his way over to the love of his life and gently placed his hand on her bare forearm. Her skin was smooth and cool to the touch, but it sent waves of electricity through his arm.

"Kayla, are you all right? I tried to find you when the swoops came in, but I couldn't in all the confusion."

"I'm fine, thanks," Kayla Lunelle said with a small forced smile as she removed her arm from his awkward clammy touch. It was no secret that Cal had a crush on her, and it was no secret to everyone in the village except for Cal that she didn't feel the same way. But while she didn't share the same feelings for him, she still remained civil with him if not cold, hoping that he would eventually get the hint.

"Don't you worry, Kayla. I'll protect you from anything Dalledo or his swoop gang tries, you have my word on that."

"Um, thanks, I guess," Kayla said as she tried to force another smile, but wasn't sure if she was able to pull it off convincingly. "I've got to go, bye," she said and quickly turned and made her way back to her small home where she lived with her family.

Cal let out a love struck sigh and smiled widely as he floated back towards his home, all the while remembering how beautiful Kayla looked when she smiled at him.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Well, it's been a little longer than my self imposed weekly posting time frame, but at least it's here.

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Chapter 2 Matter of Happenstance

Stonehaven was unspectacular as far as spaceports go, but compared to other mining-central cities, it was one of the busiest. Like other spaceports of its type, everything revolved around mining. Several large ore processing plants were spread around the large relatively flat city, and small modest identical housing units made up the majority of the city. Dust from the ore processing plants was everywhere, collecting in every nook and cranny it could possibly find. Occasionally the mass produced buildings were broken up by a different one, which ranged from being business fronts to varying shops selling a multitude of wares that a miner might find useful. In one of the sectors in the west of the large circular shaped city was a recreational district. Here, there were a number of different bars and cantinas, many of which were owned by the mining company that had the largest operation on the planet, Dalledo Mining.

In one of the smaller cantinas, Randal Sarn sat in a corner of a booth and swirled what remained of his Alderaanian ale and let out an over exaggerated sigh. Across from him sat his Twi'lek business partner Rika Tymor, who gave Randal a sideways glare at his obvious antagonizing expression. But instead of buying in to Randal's open invite for a heated argument, she turned her head away sharply, making her pastel blue lekku swing around on her shoulder. Anyone who was just short of being blind could see the tension between the two.

It had been two standard years since the Clone Wars came to an abrupt end and the former Jedi Padawan ran across Randal on Nar Shaddaa after narrowly escaping the treachery of the clone troopers. Since that time, Randal and Rika had been business partners operating his transport, the _Destrier_, out in the Corporate Sector in the Tingel Arm, and continuing her search for any Jedi survivors.

But in that amount of time, all her searching had turned up only vague rumors and uncertain recollections from dubious sources. While this frustrated her greatly, it frustrated Randal even more. Their credit reserves were running uncomfortably low and the majority of shipments that they could get paid for led back into Imperial space; a place that Randal was leery of getting anywhere near with an outlaw Jedi for a partner. Add that to the fact that she felt it was necessary to investigate every one of the leads she heard about instead of trying to land any of the rare job opportunities that they could take pushed him to the limits of his boiling point.

Rika knew that Randal was getting annoyed with her constant searching, but she felt that he failed to see just how important it was not only to her, but to the entire galaxy. He felt more concern over his pocket book then he did the well being of those in the galaxy that couldn't defend themselves. Every time she had tried to point this out to him, they only broke out into a heated argument that got them no further in convincing the other of their side.

Their last argument was only a few days before, and concerned this very trip to Dienzo III. Randal's old contact, Jonas Bees, had sent them a message saying that he knew a smuggler who claimed to know the current location of a group of Jedi who had managed to survive. So far, this was the best lead that she had in the entire two years that she had been searching, but the location that the smuggler selected for their rendezvous made Randal nervous. Dienzo III was on the border of the Middle and Outer Rim, in an area controlled by the Galactic Empire.

Randal outright refused to want to go to the rendezvous, stating that it was far too dangerous to go that far into the Empire and not get caught by one of its many agents. He had made the point of pointing out the fact that they had avoided the Empire for nearly two years, and stated that a lot had happened since they left.

In that time, the forces of the Empire had rapidly and violently crushed any and all opposition to their iron regime. On several worlds, like New Plympto and Kashyyyk, the stormtrooper brigades had trampled any that they had faced and enslaved those that they captured. And on Naboo, rumors spoke about how a battalion of stormtroopers had hostilely invaded and assassinated the Queen for harboring Jedi fugitives. Even more rumors said that a band of Jedi had gathered in the mines of Kessel and were all eliminated by the Emperor's enforcer Darth Vader.

But even when faced with all of this, Rika still felt that it was her duty to meet the smuggler and see if this lead proved fruitful. In the end, Randal gave in, but not without constantly grumbling about how much of a waste of time and credits it was.

Again Randal looked into his nearly empty mug and let out another overly done sigh. Not able to contain her annoyance any longer, Rika spun her head around and spoke sharply.

"Will you please stop that!?! It's annoying, and frankly I'm getting tired of it."

"Hey, all right, Sweetheart. Don't get all riled up, you know you're not supposed to do that," Randal said mockingly as he leaned back in his seat. Rika took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as she tried to calm herself. She knew perfectly well that she wasn't supposed to let her emotions get the better of her, but she didn't need her frustrating partner pointing it out to her all the time. In fact, she knew perfectly well that she wouldn't be remotely feeling this way if he wasn't being so difficult.

"I'm perfectly aware of my situation, thank you very much. And I don't need some unkempt smuggler giving me advice."

"Well now that's just hitting below the belt there," Randal said jokingly with a smirk. Though she was still overly frustrated with him, his joke helped to calm her down enough to diffuse the situation. "So where is this Tacky-Whatshisname at? I'm getting this ore dust in some uncomfortable places. I don't know why he wanted to meet here instead of on the station. At least there's something to do up there." Randal was referring to Ascension Station, a rather sizable and busy refueling and cargo station that was located on the edge of the Dienzo System.

"His name is Tac Flynn, and he said he was going to meet us here yesterday. You don't think he might have been arrested, do you?"

Randal shrugged his shoulders and waived the droid waitress over to their table. When the droid wheeled itself over, Randal ordered another mug of Alderaanian ale and then asked the waitress a question.

"Say, you know all of the regulars who come in here, right?"

"That's right. You lookin' for someone you know?" the female programmed droid asked.

"You could say that. We're supposed to meet up with Tac Flynn. You know him?"

"Of course I know him. He's a bulbous overweight Dug and a terrible tipper. But if you're waiting for him, you're gonna be waiting a long time I think. He was busted by an Imperial patrol a few days ago trying to bring a shipment of spice into the port. He tried to run and they blew him out of the sky."

"Oh, I hate to hear that," Randal said as he leaned back in his seat and shook his head.

"Eh, I could care less. Like I said, he was a terrible tipper." With that, the droid turned around and went to get Randal's drink. For a moment, the two just sat at the table in silence. Randal made a move to speak, but Rika crossed her arms dejectedly and turned her head away.

"Go ahead and say it. I told you so. You know you want to." Randal leaned forward on the table and ran his hand through his shaggy black hair.

"Na, there's no point in bringing that up anymore. We might still be able to salvage this trip. Maybe one of the smaller mining companies needs to have a shipment taken to the Corporate Sector. We'll look into it when I get back," he said as he stood from the table.

"Where you going?"

"I've got to use the facilities, is that okay with you?" he said with another smirk, and Rika rolled her eyes and let out a small chuckle.

After Randal left their table, Rika turned to look out the window and lost herself in her own thoughts. Was it possible that no other Jedi survived what was now being called the Jedi Purge? Surely she wasn't the only one. Though she was taught to not believe in luck, it was truly only that which allowed her to escape. That, and her Master's sacrifice to ensure she was able to escape. At many times during that last two years, she thought about him and wondered what he would say if he could see what she was doing with the gift that she had been given. Would he approve of her life as a smuggler living on the galactic fringe, or would he frown in his usual way of disapproval and attempt to teach her lesson by speaking only in riddles which were made to make her draw the right conclusion?

A rising sound and a tremor of hot tension through the Force drew her away from her reflections and made her turn her head back towards the entrance. There she could see a rather stunted man wearing shabby old clothing being verbally harassed by two scruffy looking Niktos. Randal had repeatedly warned her to always stay out of other people's affairs and mind her own business, but she found it hard to fight her natural reaction to do the opposite. This time, however, she forced herself to remain seated and only watched.

"What's the matter with you, miner? You don't have the common courtesy to say hello to visitors to your little village?"

"Yeah, we practically had to shove a blaster in your face for you to even see us."

"Actually, we did." At this, both of the Niktos erupted into a fit of devilish laughter and advanced on the much smaller man. Now everyone in the small cantina was watching with the despicable hope of seeing some action.

"Now I'm not wanting any trouble, I'm just here to get a drink," the miner said.

"Well you can't get it here, miner! We told you before that your kind ain't welcome here."

"Yeah, we've all ready warned you once. Looks like now we're going to have to teach you a lesson!" With this, the shorter of the two pulled a vibroblade out of his pocket and activated the deadly weapon. Without thinking, Rika jumped forward and grabbed the Nikto's right arm by the wrist and held it back with a strength that caught the thug by surprise.

"I think you boys have had enough fun for today." For a moment, both of the Nikto only stared at Rika with a look of mixed confusion and anger. Many of the bystanders were shocked as well; Rika didn't really present much of an opposing figure when compared to the two much larger and meaner looking thugs.

"What's it to you, slave girl? Shouldn't you be riding some old man's lap for a cred?" the one with the virboblade said. He then tried to pull his arm free from her grasp, but she held on tight. While letting out a low growl, he reared back with his left and launched a massive sucker punch at her head. But the Force was now flowing full blast through her and she sensed the swing coming. Instinctively she ducked the swing, and then pushed her right clenched fist into his midsection. Though the blow by itself might not have been enough to effect the brigand, a hard and sudden push of the Force caved his innards in on themselves for a split second and sent the breathless Nikto down to the floor wheezing in pain.

Drawn into motion by seeing his partner hit the deck, the other quickly reached for the blaster that he kept strapped to his thigh. But before he could pull the weapon free from the holster, the cold silver barrel from a DL-44 was firmly pressed against his temple.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Randal said calmly, but with enough malice that he got his point across. The Nikto froze instantly, and Randal slowly reached down with his free hand and removed the blaster from the now frozen thug. Quickly Randal ejected the power cell, and then tossed the blaster behind him onto the bar.

"Now get out of here before I change my mind. And don't forget to take the trash with you," he added with a kick to the one laying on the ground. Quickly the standing Nikto reached down and helped the other up, who was still clutching his midsection, and together they hurriedly exited the cantina.

After waiting a moment after they left, Randal holstered his weapon and glared angrily at Rika for getting involved. Now that the excitement in the bar was over, the patrons went back to their own tables and put their attention back to their drinks.

"Are you okay?" Rika asked the dust covered little man.

"Yes, more than okay now thanks to you two," the miner said with a wide grin.

"Great. Come on," Randal said to Rika as he took her by the arm, "Let's get out of here before you decide to do any more heroics."

As the two exited the cantina and entered the dust covered street, the shabby miner followed them out and tried to catch their attention.

"Excuse me, but I can't thank you enough for what you did in there. You wouldn't know how hard it is for any of us to come into this town without them harassing us like that."

"You mean it's happened before?" Rika asked as she stopped walking and turned to face the man. Randal stopped as well, and rolled his eyes as he placed his hands on his hips.

"Yes, in fact it was for that reason that I came into town today. You see, those two are members of a swoop gang called the Sickle Riders. Just yesterday they rode through my village, terrorizing everyone and damaged our homes."

"Well I'm really sorry to hear that. I hope you find some way of dealing with it," Randal said quickly and dismissively as he reached for Rika's arm to continue walking, but she pulled her arm back and narrowed her brow at him.

"I came into town today to look for some help in setting up a defense against them. You've all ready done so much for me that I hate to ask, but would the two of you be willing to help us? We'd be able to pay you, of course. A thousand credits." Rika turned and looked at Randal with a raised brow, but Randal shook his head and tried to laugh the idea off.

"Look, we'd really like to help you out, honest, but we're not soldiers. You'd be better off calling the local law enforcement here and tell them about your troubles." Randal then turned and tried to start walking away, but the man continued to plead his case.

"We would if we knew it would do any good. But the Riders are working for Dalledo, the owner of Dalledo Mining," at this, Giles pointed to a large and rather ornately built building across the street. "He controls everything, even the police. We have nowhere else to turn."

Randal sighed as he turned back around and looked at Rika, who was giving him a look that he was used to seeing. It was a look of a decision that had all ready been made and no amount of persuading or arguing was going to change it. Randal took in a deep breath and looked up at the sky and wondered if the Force had a twisted sense of humor sticking him with her. The miner caught the unspoken exchange between the two and continued on, trying to convince both of them to join him.

"Come back with me and see our village. See what we're trying to protect and make your decision then. If anything, you'll get a hot home cooked meal out of it."

"Okay, we'll come with you," Rika said with a smile. The miner smiled widely from ear to ear and enthusiastically grabbed Rika's hand in both of his and gave it an excited shake. Randal merely waved and tried to give the man a smile, but it looked like a strange crooked grin.

"My name's Giles Lancor. My transport is back this way," Giles said as he turned and began to lead the way to his battered old hover truck. As they walked, Randal got close enough to Rika to where only she could hear him.

"Are you crazy? This is Imperial space! We shouldn't even be here in the first place. The last thing we need to be doing is drawing attention to ourselves by trying to build some yokel militia."

"Will you just relax? It's not like I'm wearing my lightsaber on my belt, you made sure of that long time ago. And besides, he said they only want us to train them, not fight for them. We'd be long gone before anything actually happens."

"Yea, and the hyperlane to Mustafar is plotted with good intentions. I know you've all ready made up your mind about this so I won't even bother trying to argue with you anymore. But don't tell them your real name, there could be Imperial spies anywhere."

"Fine, I'll use an alias. What about you? Someone might recognize the name of the infamous Randal Sarn," Rika said sarcastically. Randal smiled back, dripping even more sarcasm than her comment and then reached for his comlink.

"I better let Geefive know what's up. Geefive? You'd better put the ship on lockdown, Rika's got us on some wild bantha chase with some locals now." R3-G5, Randal's trusty astromech droid and the third partner in their operation, twittered back. He said that Randal had better get her one of those slave harnesses that the Hutts use to keep her from getting the two of them into anymore unwanted trouble.

"Hey, I heard that!" Rika said with a glare.

"Oh, she's getting better, buddy. We'd better watch out. I'll let you know if anything changes." Randal smirked and let out a short laugh at Rika's expense. When they first joined up, she couldn't understand anything the little droid said, but she was learning fast.

"Here we are. Go ahead and get inside while I get the engines running," Giles said as he lifted the rust and mud covered hood and began to fiddle with the power converter. The truck was an old relic, mostly rusted through with a few spots of faded green paint still visible. Randal opened the rusty hinged door and mockingly waved his hand towards the interior and bowed his head.

"Your chariot awaits, my lady." Rika rolled her eyes and climbed into the musty cabin, followed by Randal. Giles got the engine running with a loud popping sound, and the rough idling engines fluctuated randomly as he climbed in. As the truck pulled away and headed out of the city towards the west, Randal was amazed that an old rust bucket like this could still manage to hover, let alone still move.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I've been moving into my new place and it took a lot longer than I thought it would :/ Well, here's the third chapter. Enjoy!

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Chapter 3 A Cause Worth Fighting For

The ride up to Giles's village took only twenty minutes, but Randal's back was so sore from the uneven and out of sync repulsors that he thought he was going to die from old age before they made it. If Rika also felt as uncomfortably as he did, she didn't show it. Instead, she sat calmly and watched the scenery turn from urban sprawl to rolling countryside, to a rocky tall canyon which then gave way to a valley. Situated in this small valley was the miner's village.

The village of New Beginning was definitely an odd looking one. Homes were situated around the village center; each one looking completely different from the next. Some of them were constructed out of natural materials like locally gathered wood and thatched roofing. Others were made out of permacrete stucco, and even others were made out of rusty durasteel. The look of the village caught Rika by surprise, but as they drew closer and she saw the many people who called the village home coming out to greet them, she could see the reason. As many different styles of housing that she could see, there were an equal number of different races present, all of them living in peace with one another and sharing equally with their neighbor.

As the truck came to a stop and the occupants stepped out, Rika smiled and laughed as the children ran up to them, jumping and smiling widely at the complete strangers. One of them, a young Nautolan, grabbed Randal and embraced him in a fierce hug around his midsection. Randal instinctively tried to pull back, but the youngling was too determined. Rika caught Randal's confused and uncomfortable look and laughed lightly at his awkwardness. The younglings' mothers called out to them, and the children left the strangers and ran back to the adults, who were now all gathered around the large rectangular table in the village's center.

"Everyone, I've found our saviors! These two- I'm sorry, but I never got your names," Giles said as he smiled widely and laughed at his hastiness.

"He's Captain Randal Sarn, and I'm his First Mate Ruxandra. We're here to help you out with a little swoop gang problem," Rika said loudly to the crowd. Her statement earned a loud and up roaring cheer from the villagers. The children jumped up and down clapping their hands and laughing loudly with delight. Even some of the adults joined in their excitement. Randal leaned in towards Rika's ear and whispered.

"I told you it was a bunch of yokels." Rika nudged Randal in the ribs with her elbow and then walked forward to meet the villagers. Randal cocked an eyebrow in annoyance and followed her, but while she was shaking hands and telling everyone about how they were going to help bring them peace, he was merely giving everyone his best fake smile and trying not to roll his eyes at everyone he saw.

From the edge of the crowd, Giles walked over and joined both Tolas and Otzz.

"You think these two are going to be able to help us? They look like normal spacers to me," Tolas said.

"Trust me, I saw them first hand handle two of Dalledo's goons in town. They'll be able to help."

"Hmm, you know anything about them? They seem like an odd couple if you ask me," Otzz said as he took a seat at the table.

"They know how to handle themselves, which is more than we can say for ourselves. That's good enough for me," Giles said before he turned back towards the two new comers.

"Just like Giles. Always thinking the glass is half full, but never bothers to see what it's half full of. There's more to these two than meets the eye, mark my words."

"Bah, you say that about everything," Tolas said as he scratched his long snout. "You said that last week when you thought the bantha milk was about to go bad."

"Well, it did," was all the old Arkanian said.

From inside one of the homes that featured the largest kitchen, three of the village's young girls were looking out of the window at the commotion as they finished preparing the daily communal dinner.

"What do they look like? Are any of them cute?" the youngest and shortest of the girls asked as she tried to push her way through to get a look out of the window.

"There's only two. One of them's a girl, Twi'lek I think. The other's a human, a man I think."

"But is he cute?" the same girl asked again.

"Sara, Loran, what are you looking at?" the oldest of the three, and the sister to the youngest, Kayla Lunelle asked as she came through the back door carrying a large pot of steaming soup.

"Giles came back and he's brought two people to help us fight," Loran, the two girls' cousin, said.

"You should know better than to stare at people like that. Now get the other things and bring them out to the table." At the older girl's orders, the two begrudgingly left the window and fetched their usual duty materials. Kayla put the large ladle into the pot of soup, but before she picked up the pot to take it outside, and after making sure the other girls couldn't see her, she briefly looked out the window. Outside, she saw the Twi'lek girl shaking hands and smiling at everyone, and behind her she saw a strikingly handsome man with wild rebellious hair and a saunter that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. For a moment, she was frozen staring at the man, but the sounds of the girls returning brought her out of her trance and she quickly picked up the pot of soup and took it outside.

"All right everyone! Let's give our guests some breathing space!" Giles yelled out and then motioned everyone to the communal table. Giles took his seat on the same end that Otzz and Tolas sat, and motioned the two newcomers to sit with him.

Randal and Rika sat next to each other opposite of Giles. Plates were handed to them, and soon baskets of breads and larger plates filled with foods of a multitude of different origins were being passed around. One of the younger children was walking around the table passing out small soup bowls that was then followed by an older girl ladling out soup from a pot that was floating on a repulsor pad. When she reached Randal, the blonde girl smiled warmly and filled his bowl much higher than she did the rest, all the while staring at him with her rich hazel eyes and smiling. When she moved on down the table, Rika lightly nudged Randal and whispered to him.

"Looks like you've got an admirer."

"Great, just what I need," Randal said with a sigh as he took an offered basket of bread and passed it down the table.

For the first few minutes while everyone filled their plates and then started to eat, everyone was pretty silent. But after awhile, the villagers started to make small talk among each other. Randal swallowed what he was chewing on, and spoke to those around him at the table.

"Giles didn't really say what sort of trouble you were having here. I mean, other than a swoop gang riding in whenever it pleased them."

"Yes, the swoop gang has been riding into our community for the past month now. At first they only came about once a week, but now they've started to come more frequently. It's all that Dalledo's doing, though. We all know it, but we can't do anything about it," Tolas said as he continued to eat.

"Giles mentioned him before. But why would he want them to do something like this?" Rika asked.

"It's simple," Otzz said as he refilled his glass with bantha milk. "He owns the majority of the mines on this planet, but he'd rather own them all."

"It's not that simple," Giles explained. "While we mainly pull magnium out of these hills, what we're really after is Aurodium. We know these hills are filled with it, and Dalledo knows it too. Back before the war broke out, Dorvalla Mining was purchasing large tracts of land here to use for their mining operations. Me, everyone you see here, and a few others, bought into this valley after a geological survey showed that there was a good chance for Aurodium in these hills. Well, after the war, and the collapse of the Dorvalla Mining Corporation, one of their senior officers bought out their claims to this planet and he's been stripping the land as fast as his mining droids can operate. But while he's found all sorts of wealth in his mines, he still remembers that geological survey, and he wants Red Canyon for himself. But since we all have legal claims to this land, the only thing he can do is try and scare us out. That's when he brought the swoop gang in."

"And you think if you can fight off this swoop gang, then he'll leave you alone?" Randal asked with a raised brow.

"Well, maybe us fighting back won't directly, but it'll definitely put the word out about what he's trying to do. He has connections with some of the elected officials and they've been passing a blind eye over his operation, but if enough rumors get out there, they'll have to finally do something."

"That's a lot to be hoping for," Randal said as he leaned on his left elbow.

"Having something to hope for is better than no hope at all."

Further down the table the younger people were sitting, all of them fixated on the two strangers who were said to be here to help.

"Who do you think they are? You know, like what do they do?" a young boy asked.

"Maybe they're pirates!"

"Or smugglers!"

"Stop making things up. It's not nice to make up rumors about people," Kayla said, admonishing the younger children around her. "They're here to help. Which is something that we should all be thankful for." The children grumpily agreed, and continued to stare at the newcomers while they continued to eat. Kayla let her gaze fall again on the handsome stranger, and for a moment forgot she was sitting at the table. There was something about the man that she found highly interesting, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

"I told you he was cute," the youngest girl, Sara, said.

"He's definitely cute, and dangerous looking. I like that," Loran said as she brushed her hair behind her ear.

"Loran! Don't encourage Sara like that," Kayla said.

"Me? What about you? Practically everyone saw you give him more soup than anyone else."

"What? I don't know what you're talking about. Now help me clear off the table." Kayla stood from the table and turned around before she let them see her face turn red. As the girls stood from the table and began to clear it off, one of the young men was busy watching Kayla.

Cal had heard everything that they had said, and he too had noticed Kayla paying more attention to this newcomer than she should have. He decided then and there that if she was attracted to a dangerous kind of guy, then he would do everything in his power to show that he could be the best one she would ever see.

After dinner, everyone in the village started to retire to their homes, and Giles showed Randal and Rika to one of the smaller houses.

"This house used to belong to one of us, but he left a few months ago after he had given up on his claim. It might not be much, but it's yours as long as stay." Rika thanked Giles, and after accepting an armful of linens from one of the house wives, they went inside.

The house was rather small, consisting of one large room that had a couch and a small kitchen area with an adjoining refresher and one door that then led to the only bedroom. After the door closed behind them, Randal shook his head and gave his assessment.

"Well, Giles wasn't kidding. This place sure ain't much."

"Would you give it a rest all ready? Yes, I know you don't see the importance of helping these people, but I do. The Force led us here, Randal, and I'm going to do everything in my power to do what I can. The least you can do is try to help." Randal let out a long breath and walked into the small kitchen, shaking his head all the while.

"Look, I know you want to help out every lost cause we run across, hell, you've been programmed to do that since you were little. But I keep trying to tell you, you're _not a Jedi anymore_. The Order is gone, and any of those who survived have gone into hiding, just like we did. It was a risky move to come to this planet, but you insisted. Now you're wanting to help these people out in a cause that I frankly think is lost even before it begins. Now, I'll stand with you no matter what you decide to do, but you need to realize that the more you try and do, the closer you get to being caught by the Empire, and then its game over. You understand what I'm saying?"

Rika looked away from Randal and held her arms close to herself.

"Yes, I understand what you're saying," Rika said quietly. "But you can't expect me to see something like this happening and then not do anything about it. I couldn't live with myself if I were to do something like that."

"Yeah, I know. I heard someone once refer to these days as being dark times. I think that's pretty accurate after seeing what's been happening lately. But let's just stay careful, all right? After this job's done, let's get out of the Empire and back to where no one cares who you are again, okay?"

"All right, after this job's done." Rika then looked directly into Randal's eyes and pointed a finger at him. "But I want your full cooperation in this, and no more negativity, all right?"

"Okay, okay. You win," Randal said as he gave her his patented smirk, and then opened the door leading to the bedroom. Inside, they both found only one bed. Rika tried to dismissingly laugh it off, but she found her own embarrassment had stolen her voice. Randal lightly scratched the back of his head and shrugged before he turned and headed for the couch.

"Well, looks like I'll be sleeping on the couch," he said as he flopped onto the old worn couch, sending a large cloud of dust into the air.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 For a Better Defense

The early morning fog hung thickly to the ground. As the luxury shuttle began its landing cycle, the running lights projected long yellow beams of light onto the landing pad atop the Dalledo Mining Corp building. As the shuttle set down and the ramp lowered, Kaul, the leader of the Sickly Riders, walked up and waited for his employer to exit. When he did, Kaul made a slight nod to the man, and hid his disgust fairly well.

Jorg Dalledo was a short fat old Corellian, with receding gray wisps of hair and a thick mustache. He wore an ornate and expensive black suit in the popular styling of Coruscant, and he carried himself in a manner as if he were some form of royalty. Kaul of course knew that he wasn't, but it was one of the many things he tolerated as long as the credits kept flowing. If it wasn't for that, he would have grinded this offensively annoying bug of a man beneath his boot heel, but his bank account was large so he repressed his natural urge for the time being.

"How was your meeting with the Governor?" Kaul asked, but really didn't care. Dalledo had gone to meet with the regional governor and try to get his claim to all of Red Canyon legitimized by the government. Kaul didn't have the patience or the respect for dealing with authority, but it did prove useful from time to time. All Kaul cared about was getting paid and having fun doing it. If the government were to make Dalledo's claims to Red Canyon legal, then he and his boys would have an extra amount of fun riding into that village one final time and taking those pathetic villagers out once and for all. Up until now, Dalledo only wanted them to terrorize the people, not outright exterminate them which Kaul thought was unfortunate, since he would find enjoyment in razing those defenseless villagers to the ground.

"A waste of time. But I will say that the Governor is a crude businessman. He wouldn't make my claim legal outright, but he'd do it for forty percent of the profits. Looks like we'll just have to stick to it and drive those people out the old fashioned way. How is that going by the way?" Dalledo asked as he started to walk inside the building. Kaul fell in step beside him, followed by Dalledo's droid attendant who was carrying his luggage.

"We did another run through the day before. If you ask me, I think they're about to crack soon."

"Good, that's what I want to hear. Now… wait, what's wrong with him?" Dalledo stopped walking and peered through one of the doors that led to a lounge room that the swoop gang had taken over. Inside, a Nikto was continuously holding his abdomen, all the while rolling and moaning in pain.

"Diejkaz!" Kaul yelled out to the other Nikto that was tending to the injured one. "What's wrong with your brother?"

"We got in a bar fight with one of those villagers yesterday. He's getting better, I think." Kaul raised a scarred brow and stepped into the room.

"You mean to tell me that one of those pathetic villagers did this? Please tell me you killed the filthy Hutt-spawn."

"Uh, well, not exactly," Diejkaz quickly said as he fumbled for an answer. "It wasn't a villager who did this. Two spacers helped him out. A Twi'lek girl and a human guy. The girl punched him in his stomach."

"A Twi'lek girl? I'm disappointed in your men, Kual. If they can be bested by a dancing girl, then what hope do they have of terrorizing those stupid miners?"

"Don't worry, we'll take care of those miners," Kaul said as he leered at the injured Nikto.

"You better. Otherwise I'll use my credits to put a price on your head." With that, Dalledo continued to walk off to his own private room. Kaul turned back to the two and smacked Diejkaz on the back of the head.

"You let two spacers get the better of the Sickle Riders!?! Did you at least kill the two?"

"No, Boss. They pulled their blasters before we could do anything. But I did see them leaving with the miner. They went with him in his truck back to their village."

Kaul turned and then narrowed his scarred brow as he thought. What would two spacers be doing going to that pathetic mining village? There was nothing there but helpless idiots. But then again, the two did help out the villager when his men were going to rough him up. Could those pathetic fools actually be trying to stand up for themselves? The idea was laughable, but it could be a possibility. He would have to keep a close watch out for something like this.

"Diejkaz, I want you to keep an eye out on the west city entrance. If you see these spacers come back, I want to know immediately. Got it?"

"Yes, Boss. Right away," the Nikto said as he quickly exited the room and went to keep a look out. Kaul looked momentarily at the still writhing brother, and sneered as he walked out of the room. It was probably nothing, but he still had to tell Dalledo about this possible new development.

* * *

The sound of clanging pots and running water woke Randal from an uncomfortable sleep. Lazily he sat up on his makeshift bed on the couch, and instantly the sharp wincing pain surged in his back. Groggily, he stood from the old weathered couch and ran his hands over the small of his back as he tried to work out the annoying feeling. He somehow made his way over into the small kitchen and turned the water on in the sink. He splashed his face with the bitterly cold water and he took a towel off of a hook and dried off his face. The cold water did the job.

After he took the towel away and took in a deep breath, he looked through the dingy window and could see the same young girl from the night before looking back at him from her window. When she knew that she had been seen, she embarrassingly jumped and disappeared. Randal let out a laugh to himself as he shook his head.

"Something funny?" Rika asked from the now open bedroom door. Unlike Randal, she was all ready dressed and ready to go.

"Oh, just remembering what it was like to be young," Randal said as he went back to the couch and sat down to pull on his boots. "How did you sleep?" he asked, making small talk.

"Pretty good. The bed was sort of hard, but so is the bunk in the _Destrier_. How was yours?"

"Horrible. I think they stuffed this couch with rocks." Rika lightly laughed, and then went to exit the small house. Randal stood from the couch and pulled his jacket on and grabbed his gun belt.

Rika stopped and stood on the small covered porch and looked out at the morning movements of the village. Fog was still clinging to the edges of the community, but that didn't stop the younger people from busily setting the large table for breakfast. The table was filled with plates covered in different breads, some of them glazed with sugar and others thickly crusted with jelly.

Randal stepped out and stood next to Rika as he tightened his gun belt and then tied the bottom strap around his thigh. When he was done, he looked up and lightly shook his head as he smirked.

"What the kriff are these people doing up and moving this early in the morning? It's not normal." Rika looked sideways at Randal and tried not to laugh at his sense of humor and then nudged him in the arm with her elbow.

"Come on, let's get something to eat." The two made their way to the table, where they were joined by everyone else they had met and ate with last night. This time, instead of sitting down, everyone grabbed a cup of caff and one of the bread pastries and stood around talking to each other. Randal passed on the sugar coated breads and just drank a large cup of caff. As he took a sip, and was surprised that it actually didn't taste like hyperdrive lubricant, he nodded to Giles who then joined him and Rika near a large tree.

"Good morning. So what's the first thing that you want us to do?" Giles asked as he dunked a circular piece of round dough into his caff.

"Well, I guess we need to gather everyone that knows how to use a blaster together to form your defense militia. You do have blasters, right?" Randal asked.

"Of course. We have a few hunting rifles. I'll go around and tell everyone to get their blasters and we'll meet back up here." Randal nodded and Giles left to spread the word. After he was out of earshot, Rika brushed her hands together to get rid of the crumbs and turned to talk privately with Randal.

"So, do you know how to train a militia?"

"Not really," Randal said as he shrugged and took another gulp of the hot liquid. "I got a little training while in the academy about defending a perimeter in case we got shot down. I also got a crash course in the same thing a few years back. What about you? You fought in the war for three years."

"Well, that was a little different, I guess. The clone troops were the ones that were trained for combat, but we weren't ready for it. We more or less just jumped in with our lightsabers and hoped we didn't get our heads shot off."

"Well you won't be doing that this time. Here they come," Randal said as he nodded towards the small group of miners that were walking up with their blaster rifles held haphazardly.

"All right, this is everyone that has a blaster rifle," Giles said proudly as he slung his own rifle over his shoulder. Randal nodded and then motioned to the small crowd of twelve.

"Everyone, stand shoulder to shoulder and be ready for inspection," Rika said as she stood with her hands on her hips. Randal looked sideways at Rika with a raised brow, and she lightly shrugged back at her military-esque order. Randal then walked to the farthest man and motioned to him to hand over his blaster rifle. Randal gave it a once over, and then looked down the sight as he pointed it in the sky. He really didn't know if it was good or not, but the receiver and charge magazine ejected and seated itself properly, so he handed it back and nodded at the old Arkanian and moved to the next person.

Randal took the offered rifle, and as he looked over it, he looked up at the person who had handed it to him and saw a young man, possibly sixteen at most.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Cal Damiel," he said.

"And how old are you Cal?"

"Old enough," was all Cal said. Randal looked up at him as he checked over the rifle and then raised a brow.

"Listen, kid…"

"My name's Cal."

"All right, _Cal_, you ever shoot this thing before?"

"Yes, I've shot it before. I've gone hunting plenty of times. Any more questions?" Cal said, obviously getting annoyed and angry at Randal's questioning. Randal looked up and stared the kid straight in the eye.

"Listen, _kid_, this isn't some game you're gonna be playing with your friends, and it ain't some macho thing to impress some girl. This is serious. Now you might be able to shoot some dumb animal with this thing, but can you shoot a sentient person? Someone with their own thoughts, wants, and desires, the same as you? Someone that has a mother who raised them, maybe even a family of their own? Someone who's also shooting back at you, unlike some dumb animal that just runs away if you miss. Because those swoop gang members don't have remorse; they'll shoot you down where you stand just for looking at them sideways. So I'll ask you this only one time. You sure you want to do this?"

For a long silent moment, Cal just stood there, staring right back at Randal. Then, as if he could feel everyone's eyes on him, he turned slowly and saw that not only were the other rifle carrying men looking at him, but so was the rest of the village; everyone was now frozen in what they were doing and waiting for his response. Briefly his gaze fell on his mother, who was standing next to the young women who always prepared the meals. She was looking at him with a mix of pride and fear, knowing that whatever decision he made would mean that he was either grown up now, or still not ready for the burden of adulthood. Cal then saw Kayla, who was also watching him attentively. Any doubts that he had floating in his mind instantly fell away when he saw her, and he knew what he was willing to put his own life on the line for. He turned back around to Randal and nodded his head.

"Yes, I want to do this." Randal sighed and nodded his head.

"All right, but I'm not watching your back, kid. When the bolts start flying, I don't want to see you running away to your mommie."

"Sure, but I don't want to see you running home to yours either," Cal said defiantly. Randal briefly stared the kid down, but then smirked and walked away. Randal didn't bother to inspect the other rifles and pulled Giles off to the side. As the two spoke, Cal shook his head as his anger rose.

"Who does that guy think he is? Talking to me like that. Shoot, how do we even know if he's any good himself?" Cal said loud enough for the two on either side of him to hear.

"Relax, Cal, he didn't mean anything by it," Tolas said.

"But who's he to say I'm not ready for this? He doesn't have to live here like I do."

"Cal, shut it. You don't know what you're talking about," Otzz said on Cal's other side.

"But he does?"

"Yes, he does. You see those red pinstripes on his pants?" Otzz said as he nodded towards Randal. Cal looked and shrugged when he saw what Otzz was talking about.

"So?"

"They're Corellian Bloodstripes. Those are a decoration given out by the Corellian military. And they don't give them out for just anything."

"Yeah, usually going above and beyond the call of duty, courage under fire, that sort of thing," Tolas added.

"So you see, if he has those, then it's safe to say that he knows a little about the subject." Cal let out a defeated sigh and shifted the weight of his rifle to his other shoulder.

"Well, we'll see," Cal said dejectedly. Otzz leaned back behind Cal and exchanged a look with Tolas. They both knew that the kid's heart was in the right place, but they were going to have to look out for him.

Randal and Giles walked a small distance away from the others to where Rika was standing.

"Don't worry about Cal. He's pretty grown up for being as young as he is. His father died a year ago and he's grown up pretty fast," Giles said, trying to placate Randal. But instead of being angry, Randal shrugged and lightly laughed.

"The kid's got spirit, I'll give him that. Reminds me of myself when I was younger."

"So what's next?" Giles asked. Rika looked out at the canyon entrance, which was showing a brilliant rainbow of different shades of orange in the rising morning sun.

"The way we came in yesterday, through the canyon. Is that the only way into the valley?" Rika asked.

"Yes, well, it's the only way any sort of vehicle can get in. There's an old path that leads up through the rocks and comes out on the other side of the canyon, but no one uses it anymore. It used to lead to one of the original mine shafts we had here, but after it collapsed a year ago, we haven't used it."

"Good. I'm going to want everyone that isn't in the militia to help build a perimeter wall, maybe even with a gate." Giles nodded to Rika and then walked back to the center of the village, where everyone was still standing around the large table. After he announced what they were going to do, everyone went to get their tools to get ready for work.

As the villagers dispersed, Rika crossed her arms and looked out at the canyon walls.

"What do you think about the militia?"

"Those blasters belong in a museum. I'm surprised they even have power packs. Hopefully they know how to use them." With a nod, Randal left Rika and walked back to where the twelve men were standing, and was soon joined by Giles.

"Okay, listen up," Randal said as he rested his hands on his hips. "The average swoop travels at roughly 120 kilometers per hour, and with enough space can reach 200 easy. Now that canyon," Randal pointed towards the long straight cut through the mountainside, "is long and straight. So it's a safe bet that the next time that gang comes riding in here, they're gonna be coming in fast. So fast that you'll probably only get a few shots in at best. Now I'm not doubting that you know how to use those rifles, but we need to make sure that you can hit something at a distance that's moving a pretty good speed. Giles, I'm going to need that truck of yours." Giles nodded, and Randal motioned for the rest to follow him.

When they got to the truck, Randal motioned to a nearby tree that was growing large half meter sized seed pods. "While Giles gets the truck started, lets gather up some of those pods and load up the back of the truck." The others looked at each other in puzzlement, but started to help Randal cut the heavy hanging pods off of the tree and put them into the back of the truck. Once the truck got started, Randal climbed into the back and motioned for Giles to drive into the canyon.

As the truck moved further away from the village, Randal pushed the pods out one at a time. Once they had ran out of the pods, Randal banged on the roof of the truck and Giles turned back around. When they got back to the village, Randal and Giles got out of the truck and looked back into the canyon. The pods were now arranged in a random trail leading into the canyon; a perfect target range.

"All right, let's see just how good of shots you really are."

One by one, they each took up a prone position on the ground and took turns shooting the pods, which when they were hit exploded in a large splash of purple sap. It took several hours before the pods were all destroyed, and everyone who was shooting improved over the course of the day.

"Okay, let's take a break for now. Let's meet up back here in an hour," Randal said as he wiped the sweat away from his brow. As they departed to take their breaks, Randal looked around and found Rika directing a team of villagers as they used wheeled carts to move large chunks of rock from the mines to make a defensive wall. Randal walked over and surveyed the makeshift wall. Even though it was just rocks stacked up to about a meter, it looked pretty good.

"Not bad. That ought to slow them down," Randal commented.

"Yes, it should. How's the target practice going?" Rika asked as she took a break from directing the villagers.

"Well, they can shoot all right. After our break I'm going to see if they can hit a target that's moving."

"How are you going to do that?" Rika asked as she cocked a brow. Randal shrugged and watched one of the large rocks as it was set down in its place.

"I figured I'd drive that truck around in the canyon and see if they can hit any of those pods sitting in the back."

"You have any idea just how stupid that sounds?" Rika asked as she looked at Randal as if he had lost his mind. Randal laughed and shook his head.

"Well I'm not going to put the pods in the passenger seat. I'll carry them in that trailer attached to the back. Relax, I've seen them shoot. They won't be shooting anywhere near the cabin of that thing."

"Hmm, well, I hope you're right. I'd hate to have to try and find another freighter jockey as charming as you are," Rika jokingly said. Randal laughed and then wrapped an arm around her playfully.

"Don't worry, Sweetheart. You're stuck with me." Rika rolled her eyes at his patented smirk and then brushed away his arm before she went off to help a villager position another boulder sized addition.

Away from all the work, the girls of the village were working inside the kitchen making sandwiches for everyone to eat. Kayla looked up from the sink where she was washing a head of rodian lettuce and watched Randal and his partner interacting. After the Twi'lek walked away, Randal made his way to the moisture collector where several of the other members of the small militia were getting a drink.

"They make an odd couple, don't you think?" Kayla said aloud. The youngest girl, Sara, giggled to herself but stopped when Kayla gave her a stern look. Sara took one of the plates and quickly took it outside. Loran leaned close to Kayla and looked out the window as Randal started to talk to those around him.

"I don't think they're a couple. I overheard my mother say that when she was cleaning up their place after breakfast, she noticed that only half of the bed was slept in, and someone had slept on the couch." Kayla stopped washing the lettuce and thought about that. Maybe it was possible that the two weren't together. The Twi'lek girl, Ruxandra if Kayla remembered right, was very beautiful, but seemed to act more reserved and timid than what Kayla had heard about the females of her species. Randal seemed to be more outspoken and more aggressive in his demeanor. Kayla smiled warmly to herself as she thought about the handsome stranger.

"Maybe you should go talk to him," Loran said as she nudged her older cousin.

"Why don't you?" Kayla said back. Loran shrugged and then walked away, over exaggerating her swaying hips.

"Maybe I will," Loran said jokingly. Kayla and Loran let out a laugh, and together they took the remaining plates of sandwiches outside.

Randal took one of the thin metal cups and filled it with the cold water that flowed from the moisture collector. As he took a sip of the refreshing liquid, he nodded to Otzz and Cal, who were standing under the shade of a tree nearby. Otzz nodded back and then motioned for Randal to come over.

"I was telling Cal earlier about those Bloodstripes," Otzz said. Randal briefly looked down at his pants and then nodded as he took another deep drink from his cup.

"So what you earn those for? You get into a fire fight or something?" Cal asked.

"Something like that," Randal offered shortly. Cal shifted his weight and pushed himself off from the tree that he was leaning against.

"Well, you gonna tell the story or not?" Cal asked, sounding offended.

"It's a long story, kid. Maybe some other time." Randal took another drink as Kayla came up with a plate of sandwiches and offered the trio some food, but gave one to Randal first. Randal nodded his thanks, and she smiled widely at him. Cal took one and offered his thanks, but was only given a brief smile before she turned back to Randal.

"So, do the two of you often do this sort of work?" she asked, fishing for a conversation starter.

"No, not really. We normally just take shipments from one planet to another in my ship, the _Destrier_. Maybe you've heard of it." Kayla smiled, but shook her head no. "Well, this planet's pretty isolated. It's pretty famous in the Outer Rim," Randal said as he took a bite out of the sandwich. He knew, of course, that his ship probably wasn't as famous as he was making it out to be, but just like all other freighter pilots who boasted about their ships, they always like to imagine that they were the best pilots in the entire galaxy and that their ships would be forever known as the best of the best.

"How long have the two of you been together?" she asked innocently. Randal shrugged and took a bite out of his sandwich.

"Oh, I'd say about six years now."

Cal watched on and could feel his face getting hot as he watched Kayla smile at this newcomer the way that she used to smile at him. He was just going to have to knock him down a peg or two.

"So, are you pretty quick with that thing?" Cal said as he pointed at Randal's blaster. Cal then smiled cockily and rested his hand on his own blaster pistol. "I'm pretty fast myself." Cal then demonstrated by pulling the pistol out quickly and aimed it from the hip. He smiled at his own impressive display of speed and then holstered the blaster. Randal only raised his brow slightly at the display, but Cal could see that Kayla was impressed.

"Being quick ain't got nothing to do with it, kid. It's all about keeping calm. If you can stay calm and not get rattled, then you're gonna walk away alive."

"But what if the other guy's faster?" Cal asked defiantly. Randal shrugged and took another bite from his sandwich.

"Then he'll be in too much of a hurry and miss."

"What if he doesn't miss?" Cal said, this time with more edge in his voice. Randal swallowed the food in his mouth and then gave Cal a serious look.

"Then he'll be the one walking away, and you'll be lying on the ground. Look, I don't know what low budgeted holovids you've been watching, but the Outer Rim's not some sort of lawless frontier where a lone wanderer comes into town and sets things straight with the barrel of his blaster. Firefights are never straight forward and it's certainly not two guys staring each other down in the streets and they both go for their pistols and shoot each other down. They're usually pretty chaotic and they're over just as soon as they start."

A tense moment of silence fell over the small group, and Kayla excused herself. Randal caught the wandering look of Cal as she left, and instantly he understood where all the kid's hostility was coming from. Randal shook his head as he tried not to laugh and put his hand on Cal's shoulder.

"Look, kid. If you're wanting to impress a girl, do it with this," he said as he tapped a finger to his temple. "Not this," he then tapped the blaster on his hip. "This'll only get you into more trouble than it's worth. And it'll likely either drive a girl away, or end up getting them hurt. Trust me."

Cal attempted to protest again, but the sudden frankness of Randal and the truth that he spoke sank in with a deep realization. Cal nodded, and Randal tussled his hair before he motioned back towards the entrance.

"Come on, let's get back to work." Cal nodded and headed off towards the entrance while Randal went to get another cup of water. Otzz stayed behind and leaned against the moisture collector.

"You know, I think you finally got through to the kid. We've been trying to tell him that for some time, but it never seemed to sink in."

"Well, I only told him what I wished someone would have told me when I was his age. Would have saved me a whole lot of trouble." Otzz nodded in agreement and together the two headed off to the entrance to the village to meet up with the others.

* * *

A/N: I wanted to put a brief footnote in here concerning Randal's Bloodstripes. Wookiepedia has it listed that red stripes are 1st class and yellow are 2nd, which would mean that yellow stripes would be awarded before the red ones. But, considering Han had red ones in A New Hope, and yellow ones in Empire and Return of the Jedi, it makes me think that Wookiepedia has it backwards. So for all intents and purposes, Randal has red 2nd class stripes. But how did he earn them? Well, that's a story for some other time ;)


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Storm on the Horizon

Rika woke early the next morning to the sounds of movement in the other room. As she sat up from the bed, she wiped the sleep away from her eyes and let out a deep yawn. She had worked late into the night with her building crew and they had finished making their rock wall. Randal had continued to train the militia and found relative success by driving the truck around while hauling a trailer of the pods that they had used for target practice.

She stood up fully now, and after a stretch, she opened the bedroom door and looked to see what all the commotion was about. Randal was all ready dressed and was buckling his gun belt around his waist. He looked up and paused momentarily before he finished tightening the belt.

"Morning," Randal said as he looked back down. Even though they were just partners, Randal couldn't help but notice that Rika was strikingly attractive, but her being a Jedi made things complicated, at best. There were times when her beauty caught him off his guard, and now was one of them as she stood in the doorway wearing only a small shirt and shorts, showing off her silky luminescent sapphire skin.

Rika caught the brief distraction in Randal's demeanor and suddenly felt embarrassed for not putting on more clothes. She smiled back apprehensively and went back to put her clothes on. Randal shook his jacket a few times and then pulled it on.

"I'm gonna see if Giles will drive me into town. I need to get a few supplies, maybe some more ammo. I'm also gonna bring the _Destrier_ up here; I think there's a space big enough to set her down up near the mines."

"Why are you going to bring the ship here?" Rika asked as she pulled on her pants.

"I don't like leaving it down there. And besides, if I have to sleep another night on that lumpy old couch I'm gonna kill somebody." Randal waited for Rika to come out of her room and together they went outside, where everyone was gathering around the table talking and eating breakfast like they did yesterday.

Randal got himself a cup of caff, and then found Giles talking with a few of the villagers.

"Giles, I'm going to need you to drive me into town for a few supplies. I'm also going to bring my ship back up here," Randal said as he took a sip of his caff.

"You're going in to Stonehaven? Can I come, too?" Kayla asked as she set a plate of hot biscuits down. Randal was about to tell her that it wasn't going to be a fun trip and she should stay and help here, but Giles spoke first.

"Well I don't see why not." Kayla smiled happily and ran off to get her things. Randal turned around and rolled his eyes, which Rika saw and tried to stifle a laugh.

"So what are you going to do?" Randal asked her.

"There's still a little work that has to be done on the wall. I was also thinking about having a trench dug on the inside of the wall so the militia can have more cover."

"Sounds good. I'll be back in a few," Randal said as he headed off to meet Giles and Kayla at the ancient hover truck. When he got there, Giles slammed the rusted hood shut over the puttering engine, and Kayla was waiting inside the truck anxiously. Randal let out an exasperated breath as he climbed into the cabin and forced a smile as Kayla moved over to give him room, but only just enough for him to fit. He noticed that there was still plenty of room on her other side but he knew what she was doing. Randal almost told her to stop wasting her time, after all he was nearly twice her age, but he didn't want to make the trip any more awkward than it was all ready.

The trip into town was long but uneventful. As they road through the canyon and then through the rocky plains leading towards the spaceport, Kayla assaulted Randal with unending questions.

"So what's it like living as a freighter pilot? Is it exciting traveling from planet to planet? How many of them have you been to? Have you ever been to the Core?" Randal was overwhelmed with the questions, but tried to answer them to be friendly, if even only just to pass the time.

"It's all right, I guess. I don't have to answer to anyone unless it's an expedited haul they're paying me for. Space travel can be exciting at times, but it's usually pretty routine. Not much ever really happens. Well, at least nothing interesting to talk about ever happens. I've been to my fair share of planets, and yes, I've been to the Core. That's where I'm from originally."

Kayla was about to release another barrage of questions, but Giles laughed and restrained Kayla.

"Now come on, Kayla. It's too early in the morning to be asking that many questions." Kayla slumped back into her seat and the rest of the ride was quiet, except for the sputtering of the aging engine.

When they reached Stonehaven, Giles parked the hover truck in front of a merchant shop and the three of them stepped out of the cab. Randal stretched and rubbed the lower portion of his back as he grimaced. How long it was going to take him to recover from sleeping on that old couch, he had no idea. Kayla ran into the shop quickly, followed by Randal and Giles.

* * *

Diejkaz was standing outside of the Dalledo Mining building eating a garnupian pear when the ancient hover truck came in and parked down the street in front of one of the shops. Diejkaz remembered the truck; there were few examples of such old relics still in existence on this planet, much less one that actually still ran. As he continued to eat the purple colored meat of the pear, he saw the spacer who had put a blaster to his head step out and stretch before he went inside the shop.

Diejkaz dropped the remains of the fruit on the ground and ran inside. He found Kaul in Dalledo's office, where the fat old Corellian was talking his one good ear off about nothing he really cared about. When Diejkaz burst into the room, both men looked up at the Nikto and waited for him to speak.

"Boss! That spacer's come back, and he's with some of those miners." Kaul was glad for the change of subject and quickly spoke.

"Where's he at?"

"He's down at Greemor's. I saw them go in and I ran up here." Kaul went to the large window and looked down the street. He could see an old hover truck parked there, and before long he could see two people bringing several packages out and loading them into the back of the truck. Kaul heard an annoyed sound beside him and lightly turned his head to see Dalledo standing next to him.

"Which one is he?" Dalledo asked. Kaul recognized one of them; he was tempted to shoot him in the head a few days ago during their latest raid. But the younger, more built one he didn't.

"The one in the jacket," Kaul said. Dalledo narrowed his brow and then let out a hissing sound as he sucked air through his gritted teeth.

"Minions of Xendor," Dalledo spat.

"What?" Kaul asked. He had never heard that particular expletive used before, but he could gather what it meant.

"That's not an average spacer. You see those stripes on his trousers? Those are Corellian Bloodstripes; a military decoration. What is he doing with a bunch of miners?" Kaul turned back to the window and looked at the younger man with a new light. A military decoration? Now this was interesting. Perhaps now he would have some sporting fun on this drearily boring world.

"I don't know, but it can't be good. That much I can tell you." Dalledo stared at the man for a moment longer and then turned back to his desk.

"Invite him up here. I want to know exactly what it is he's doing up there and why." Kaul nodded and then motioned for Diejkaz to follow him as he left the room.

* * *

Randal carried the last of the packages and put it in the back of the truck. He only bought a few boxes of charge packs for the militia's rifles, but Giles took the opportunity to get a long list of supplies that everyone was wanting. Kayla came out of the shop skipping and wearing a new ribbon that she had put in her hair. She was about to show it off to Randal, but she stopped short when she saw the two men approaching. Randal narrowed his brow when he saw her freeze, and also watched as Giles's face turned white as he too looked at something behind him. Randal turned around to see what it was, and lightly raised a brow at the two men that were approaching. One of them was a Nikto, Randal remembered him from the other day in the cantina, but the other he had never seen before. This one was much larger and carried himself in a way that let anyone know that he was in charge. He was dressed like a typical swoop gang leader, wearing filthy pants with high scuffed boots and a jacket that brandished their gang's logo. But Randal also noticed the branded scar on his left cheek. The symbol raised Randal's heartbeat, because unlike most people, he knew what it meant.

"You," the scarred one said, "Dalledo wants a word with you." Randal rested his hands on the buckle of his gun belt and stared back.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, it is." Randal smirked at this and then shrugged slightly.

"All right," he said as he took a step forward.

"No, don't go!" Kayla gasped in fear. Randal turned back around and gave a smirk as he nodded to the truck.

"I'll be fine. You two go ahead and head back. I'll be along shortly." Kayla made to protest again, but Randal turned and started to walk towards the Dalledo building. Giles took her by the arm and tried to calm her down.

"Don't worry. He knows what he's doing. Now come on, let's go."

As Randal walked towards the building, he passed through the two gang members and kept walking. Kaul looked back and sneered at the two before he turned and followed Randal. Diejkaz gave Kayla a once over and then turned to go as well. The two continued to watch until Randal and the gang members entered the building before they moved.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Kayla asked.

"What can we do? Randal knows what he's doing, trust him. It's all we can do now." Giles looked at the building one last time and hoped that he was right. Together the two got into the truck, but as Giles started to back up, Kayla opened the door and jumped out.

"Kayla! What are you doing?"

"I'm going to wait for him. Go ahead and go, I'll ride back on his ship." Giles attempted to protest, but Kayla ran off before he could say anything. After turning around and watching her run off down the street, he shook his head and then began to make the drive back to New Beginning.

* * *

Randal went inside the building and then followed Kaul up the stairs and then into a high ceilinged office. Randal briefly looked around and saw ornate art work from a number of different worlds, but a lot of it came from the Five Brothers. Seated behind a large hand carved desk sat a short pudgy old man with a puff of gray hair atop his head. The fat old man stood with some effort and then put his right hand forward to shake.

"Stranger, I'm Jorg Dalledo."

"I figured as much," Randal said, not taking the offered hand but keeping his own on his gun belt buckle. Dalledo withdrew his hand and gave Randal a once over.

"So what do I call you? Unless "stranger" suits you?"

"Captain Randal Sarn of the _Destrier_," Randal said.

"Well, Captain Sarn, do you partake?" Dalledo said as he motioned to a crystal decanter of Corellian brandy.

"Every chance I get," Randal said with a smirk. Dalledo lightly smiled back, and then poured two crystal glasses of the expensive brandy. Randal took the offered the glass with his left hand and then briefly looked behind him to see that Kaul and Diejkaz had taken up positions at both sides of the door. He took a sip of the brandy and wasn't surprised that it was the expensive stuff.

"It's a rare vintage from the oldest Corellian winery still in existence. I prefer only the best, as you can tell," he said as he waved his hand at the room around him. "You ever make it back to the home system?"

"Not really. There's not much there for me anyway," Randal said as he took another drink.

"Yes, I know what you mean. You see, we think the same way. I left Corellia a long time ago because everything there was developed. There was no way for an industrious man to make his fortune. So I came out here, to this uncivilized and undeveloped planet. Where it was once just a small mining site for a galaxy wide corporation, I turned it into an empire. Nearly every mine on this planet is mine, and I did that all with my own ambition and drive. But those good for nothing squatters out there in Red Canyon are stopping the way of growth."

"For you, maybe. But they're just trying to make it in this galaxy, just like you and me," Randal said matter of factly.

"And what stake do you have in it? You don't look like the mining type. Did they offer you some sort of transporting deal? What is it that you want with those miners?" Dalledo asked as he sat down. Randal shrugged and continued to stand.

"I have my reasons for being there; that's all you need to know." Dalledo gave Randal a hard look over the edge of his glass and then reached for an official looking piece of flimsi.

"This is an official document from the regional Governor saying that I have the mineral rights to that canyon. Go ahead, read it!" Randal smirked and then shook his head.

"No, I don't think so. If you really held those rights, you could legally kick those people out of that canyon instead of having to send in a bunch of hired goons to try and drive them out." Dalledo stood from his desk and slammed his hand on the table.

"Damn it, Sarn! I've worked far too long and hard turning this rock into a profitable enterprise, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let a bunch of idiolistic miners get in my way!" Dalledo fumed for a few seconds but then stood tall and readjusted his silken neck tie. "Now I've been a patient man, but my patience only goes so far. Now up until now, I've been keeping Kaul and his boys on a short leash. But next time, I'm letting them go in, no holds barred."

Randal turned briefly to look at Kaul, who was now sneering in delight as he cracked his knuckles and popped his neck. The light coming in through the windows hit the scar on his cheek perfectly.

"Those people up in New Beginning, would you pay for their claims? Buy them out?" Randal said as he turned his gaze from the menacing Kaul back to the short lumpy man.

"Well of course," Dalledo said as he shrugged. "I'm a sensible man, and I'd prefer to do this as peacefully as possible. How does 1,000 a head sound? I think that's fair."

"How about 10,000?" Randal said as he took another pull from the brandy.

"10,000?!? Are you mad?" Dalledo choked out at the figure. Randal shrugged and placed his glass on the wooden desk, deliberately putting it right next to the protective coaster instead of on it.

"A lot of people might not know what that scar on his cheek might mean," Randal said as he motioned towards Kaul with a nod of his head. "But I do. That's an old Mandalorian character. I don't remember what the word was, but it means someone who commits atrocities; a real monster in living form. You know as well as I do that if you send him into that village with no restrictions, he's not just going to kill them all. He's going to torture them, burn them, mutilate them, but keep them alive as long as he can so he can enjoy it all that much more. Now I can tell you're a man who doesn't like to get his hands dirty, and I'm sure you wouldn't want that sort of thing on your mind, constantly knowing that you brought that upon women and children. So I guess you got to ask yourself one question; what's it worth to you to keep a clear conscience?"

Dalledo blinked rapidly and then let out a shuddering breath as he looked back at Kaul, who was only sneering with pure delight at someone knowing just what sort of hell he could bring. Dalledo's brow was now covered with cold chilling sweat, and he shakily took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his brow.

"All right. 10,000 a head. But I want those people out of there by noon tomorrow. If they're not gone by then, I'll have little choice but to send Kaul and his men in." Randal nodded and then turned to leave. Dalledo fell back into his chair and nervously poured himself another glass of brandy, spilling some of it onto his ornate wooden desk.

As Randal passed Kaul, the tall demon of a man smiled wickedly and said only one word.

"_Demagolka._" Randal locked eyes with the horrid man and continued to walk passed him, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end the entire time. As he passed, he caught sight of a chrome plated blaster on Kaul's hip with a red jewel with a golden tattered W placed on the hilt.

When Randal exited the building, he started to walk as quickly as he could across the street to the nearest alley that would lead to the space dock. He saw something move out of the corner of his eye and he reached to pull his blaster pistol, but when he saw that it was only Kayla, he let go of the butt and let out a deep breath that he didn't realize that he was holding.

"What are you doing here? I thought I told you and Giles to go back?"

"He did, but I stayed. Is everything okay? What did he want to talk to you about?" Randal took Kayla by the arm and started to lightly run towards the docking bay.

"We've got real problem on our hands now. Come on, my ship's this way." Randal led them both down a few alleys and then entered the docking bay where the _Destrier_ sat. Randal let go of Kayla's arm and made his way to the now lowering entry ramp. Kayla let out an overly impressed expression as she looked over the ship with wide awe-struck eyes.

"Whoa, I've never seen a starship up close like this before!"

"Well, now you get to ride in one," Randal said as he headed up the ramp. Kayla broke out of her mesmerized state and ran to the ramp. She paused momentarily at its base, but then walked up quickly, all the while trying to contain her excitement. She had always wanted to fly away in a starship but had only caught the rare glimpse of one as it either entered or left the space dock. But now, she wasn't only seeing one up close, she was actually inside one! Randal was all ready on the other side of the main cabin and was heading towards the cockpit. Kayla followed him, but was too busy looking at the inside of the ship to see where she was going. As she walked haphazardly, she nearly fell over when she ran into a squat cylindrical astromech droid, who let out a furious sounding series of buzzes and then rolled backwards to look at her.

From inside the cockpit, Randal yelled out to the droid. "Relax; she's never been inside a ship before. Get in here, both of you!" Kayla followed the astromech down the narrow access corridor and turned to enter the small cockpit. Randal was sitting in the left chair busily flipping switched that were turning the systems on and priming the engines. The astromech went to a small area behind the right chair and jacked in to the ship's systems via an uplink module. Kayla again just stood there and marveled at everything she saw. The astromech turned his domed head to face her and then twittered. He jokingly asked Randal if he had traded in for a newer model year.

"What?" Randal asked as he turned around. When he caught the meaning to the joke, he only cocked an eyebrow and then turned back around to his console.

"No, that's Kayla; she's from the mining village. Kayla, that's Geefive, our third partner in our little enterprise." Kayla bent over and looked Geefive in his ocular sensor.

"Cool, I've never seen an astromech droid before. How are you?" Geefive chortled a response and then went back to his duties. Randal didn't bother to give the actual translation of the joking reference to the intelligence level of the indigenous yokels and chose to rather lie.

"He says he's fine. Take a seat and strap in, we're about to take off." Kayla stood back up and then got into the copilot's chair and strapped in.

With a few jolts of the ignition, the trio of powerful ion engines turned over and Randal engaged the repulsorlifts. Steadily he raised the _Destrier_ up, and with a quick rush from the engines, the ship took off. Randal lightly pulled the ship to port once they had gained enough altitude and headed towards New Beginning. As they flew, Kayla leaned forward and looked out at the landscape. Though she had seen it hundreds of times before, she had never seen it from this perspective. She leaned a little too far forward, though, and accidently pushed forward on the control yoke in front of her. The _Destrier_ dipped down slightly, but Randal pulled it back up and then gave Kayla a look. She then shrank back into her chair and smiled apologetically. After a few moments more, she tried to lighten the air with a conversation.

"So what happened in Dalledo's office?"

"We had a talk," was all he offered.

"And?" Kayla pressed on, regardless of whether Randal was willing to talk about it or not.

"We're in trouble."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Sorry about the delay before posting this chapter. It's a longer one, so hopefully it makes up for it.

* * *

Chapter 6 Whatever it Takes

Giles pulled his battered old hover truck up against the wall of his house and shut down the tired old engine. Waiting for him were the members of the militia and Rika, who started to unload the packages out of the back. Tolas noticed that Giles seemed disturbed and asked him what was up.

"What's going on, Giles? You look a little flustered."

"Well," Giles said as he ran his hand over the back of his head, "That gang leader Kaul came up to us and said Dalledo wanted to have a talk with Randal." This caught everyone's attention and they all stopped what they were doing and waited for him to continue. When he didn't, Otzz prodded him.

"And? Did he go?"

"Yeah, he just walked in there like it was nothin'," Giles said with a resigning shrug.

"I'm sure he's okay," Tolas said as he looked at Rika. She at first looked back in confusion, but caught what he meant. She hadn't felt anything concerning Randal in the Force, so she knew that he was still alive, but she couldn't explain that to any of the people around her.

"Oh, I'm sure he is. He knows how to take care of himself. See," she said as she shaded her eyes with her hand as she looked up into the sky at the sound of the familiar engines. "Here he comes now."

Up above, the _Destrier_ came in low and passed over the village. She slowed down and started to turn back around before her landing gear lowered and the repulsorlifts engaged to set the ship down in-between the village proper and the cliff face where the mines were at.

Everyone in the village was now outside and awe struck at seeing a ship land in their small community. The adults all began to walk over to take a look, but the children all ran over and looked around in pure excitement. When the ramp lowered, the children ran to it and stood waiting to catch a glimpse of the inside.

Kayla was the first to emerge and all of the children and those her age began to pelt her with questions about what the ride was like. Randal stepped down next, and looked around until he found Rika and the militia members. He waived them over, and once they were within talking distance he told them about his talk with Dalledo.

"Look, we need to have a community meeting, or whatever you call it." Giles nodded and then whistled loudly to get everyone's attention. As he announced that everyone should gather round to listen, Randal looked back up the ramp and whispered to Geefive, who was now standing beside him.

"I need you to keep the kids entertained. What I'm about to tell these people they don't need to hear." Geefive whistled a sarcastic question back at him. "I don't know, just move around and pop out some of your tools. Kids are easily distracted, and I doubt any of these have ever seen an astro droid." Geefive answered back with an annoyed sounding tweet and rolled out, where he was instantly assaulted by all of the children. As Geefive moved the massive crowd of gawking children away from the crowd, Rika leaned in and whispered in Randal's ear.

"What are you about to tell them? Whatever Dalledo talked to you about?" Randal nodded and then took in a deep breath before he stepped forward where everyone could hear him.

"Yeah. I've got a real bad feeling about this one." When he stepped forward, everyone got quiet and waited for Randal to speak. He looked over the faces that were now looking at him and tried to think of the best way to break it to them.

"Okay, listen up. I'm sure Giles has all ready told you, but I had a talk with Dalledo."

"What did that Hutt-slime have to say?" someone in the crowd yelled out.

"He says he wants to make this canyon his, and he's not afraid to use force if necessary."

"Tell us something we don't know," Cal said as he crossed his arms.

"I talked him into offering 10,000 a head to buy you out of your claims. It's an offer with a time table though; he's given you until noon tomorrow." A murmuring broke out in the crowd as everyone debated whether they should take it or not. After a minute, Giles stepped up on the entry ramp and whistled again for everyone's attention.

"All right, we've heard Dalledo's offer. I guess we should put it to a vote then. Everyone in favor of taking his offer?" A few of the people raised their hands, but mostly everyone just looked around at everyone else, not sure of what to do. "All right, any opposed?" Again only a few hands went up, but still everyone seemed to not be able to make up their minds. "Well come on, people. We have to make a decision on this. Anyone want to say something?"

"I used to work for Dalledo," Tolas said as he spat on the ground. "He's a greedy Hutt-spawn, but he isn't a fool. If he's offering us 10,000 a head, it's because he knows there's a thousand times that in these hills." Otzz laughed and shook his head.

"The way his operation works, sure. He has those fancy mining droids working nonstop around the clock. They could strip these hills bare in little under a year. We'd be lucky if we even get a thousand out of our shafts. I say we take his offer." Another round of murmuring went around the camp.

"Well what if you struck a small vein of Aurodium in your shaft? Would you quit and get off this planet, or would you keep mining for more?" Tolas asked. Otzz didn't respond, but only grumbled and folded his arms on themselves.

"What do you think? What would you do if you were in our boots?" Giles asked Randal and Rika. Randal shook his head and then shrugged his shoulders.

"What I say or think doesn't matter. We're only here to train you, not fight for you. This is your livelihood he's buying. I can't make a choice like this for you."

"Why don't you just sleep on it and make a decision in the morning?" Rika asked the group.

"What if we can't make a decision then? What if it's the same as it is now?" Giles asked as he shook his head and put his hands in his back pockets.

"Then I guess Dalledo would take that as a no."

"Well, we'd be no worse off than we are now," Tolas said in a matter that said he was done with this conversation. But before he turned to leave, Randal called him back.

"Not exactly. He said that if he didn't hear that you all were going to take him on his offer, he was going to send Kaul and his swoop gang in again."

"Well that's what we've been getting ready for, right? I mean, that's the only reason the two of you are even here. I think we've done pretty good so far. I say let them come, we're ready!" Cal said as he turned to rally the crowd. Everyone lightly started to cheer for Cal's words, but Randal shook his head and stepped forward again on the ramp.

"Before you make your decision to stand and fight, there's something you all need to know. Before today, I didn't know who this Kaul was, but I met him today. He's just not some scum Dalledo hired off of a freighter, he's a mercenary; a Mandalorian." The entire crowd took in a shocked breath at the same time. A Mandalorian? Here on Dienzo III?

"Mandalorian? You mean they really exist?" Cal asked. Randal nodded and continued.

"Yes, they really exist. Now I'm sure you've heard a lot of stories about them, and most of them are all tall tales, but they have their roots in the truth. Their mercs are tough, well trained, and they're definitely the type you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley with. But not only is Kaul one, he's one of the worst you can possibly find. If anyone here has ever seen him up close, you've seen that scar he has on his cheek, and the chrome plated blaster with the red crystal. That red crystal in the blaster has an emblem that signifies him as a member of a nasty sect that call themselves the Death Watch. From what I know, the nastiest and most outspoken ones would brand themselves with the character that best signified their particular "talents". That symbol he wears means that he uses tactics like torture, mutilation, and all sorts of other acts of horror just for fun. And if you decide to stay here, Dalledo's going to send him up here with free reign to do whatever he wants."

The crowd all stared back at Randal and an eerie sense of foreboding fell over the crowd.

"How do you know all this?" Otzz asked, breaking the uneasy silence.

"I've had dealings with Mandalorians before," was all Randal said. Giles nodded his head heavily and turned to the crowd again.

"Well, I guess we know what we'll be facing. Dalledo isn't just giving us this offer, he's saying, "Take it or else." We're going to have to make a decision now." Several people in the crowd looked around at each other, waiting to see if someone else would speak up or not.

"Look, I'm an old man," Otzz said. "If I were ten years younger, I'd say to hell with Dalledo, and tell those swoop riders to bring it on. But I'm not a young man anymore. If it came down to it, I'd fight for what's mine instead of running, but Dalledo's offer is fair. I say we take the credits and go somewhere else and start another place. One where there's no Dalledo wanting to take what's ours."

"Sure, starting over sounds easy when there's trouble on the horizon. But we all know that there's always going to be a Dalledo wherever we go. And if it's really all just about credits, then we're no better than Dalledo himself. But we all know that we're not here just for that. We're here because this is a place that we've built with our own hands, our own sweat. No one can say they were given anything here or had to work for anyone to get it. Everything we have we earned the hard way. And now we're just going to take the 10,000 and walk away from everything we've built? What happens if in the next place we go, the same thing happens? We going to sell everything for 5,000? Maybe less? Or are we just going to say enough's enough, and go back to slaving for a meager wage and hope we can afford to put food on the table for our families?"

"I say Dalledo can go frag himself," Tolas said as he spat on the ground. There was another round of everyone looking at each other, but this time they seemed to be nodding with a clear decision, as if they were all on the same plane.

"Well, I may be old, but my children are still young. We've taken our chances so far, might as well keep going. I vote we stay," Otzz said reluctantly. Everyone in the crowd began to agree and started to throw random insults at Dalledo and his offer.

Randal sighed, and then turned back to Rika and rolled his eyes.

"I knew they were going to say that," he said as he walked passed her and went to his cabin. Rika followed him, and after making sure no one was behind her, she spoke.

"So is that it? Are you planning on just abandoning these people? You said you knew what this Kaul was capable of. Are you going to be able to live with something like that on your conscience?" Randal opened a storage compartment on the bulkhead and gave Rika a sideways look before he reached in.

"I should just take off, I really should." Randal then pulled out several old gun belts, each with a blaster holstered in it. "But I've been hanging around you too long; you're starting to rub off." He handed a couple of the belts to her and then walked back to the entry ramp.

Outside, the militia members were standing around talking about how they would set up in the shallow trenches that were now lining the rock wall. Cal looked up at the two and raised an eyebrow.

"What are those for? I thought you were only here to train us."

"Well your motivational speech changed my mind. We're gonna have to bolster up the defenses here for when they come. I'd rather not have an angry Mandalorian with a bloodlust driving up here with only that wall to stop him," Randal said. Giles nodded in agreement but didn't have any idea as to what else they could do.

"Have someone take these and set up a refuge in one of the mines. Whenever they come, everyone who isn't part of the militia needs to get in there and use these to guard the opening. I wish I had more of them, but these are all I got," Randal said as he handed one of the villagers the small collection of gun belts and blasters.

"Earlier you mentioned another path into the village. Where does that come out?" Rika asked.

"Its right up there," Giles said as he pointed up at a small path that led into up the canyon wall. "It actually goes all the way through the rocks to the other end of the canyon near the flat lands between here and Stonehaven."

"Not many people know about that path, right?" Rika asked, an idea all ready forming in her head.

"Pretty much, just everyone who lives here knows about it, but it's not very obvious unless you know what you're looking for on the other side." Rika smiled and then nodded her head.

"Good. We need to set up a lookout, and it sounds like that path would be the best place for it. Have two of your men go up there and set up a small hidden area where they can watch the canyon. Whenever they see the swoops coming, they can signal us with a comlink." Giles smiled at the ingenious idea and called Cal and one of the other militia members over to tell them about the lookout point. After they gathered a few tools, they set off up the trail.

Randal looked out at the long stretch of land between the two rocky cliff faces and narrowed his brow. He knew that no matter how hard he trained the militia members to shoot moving targets, they were still going to have a hard time hitting anything that was coming in as fast as those swoops could. If only there was some way to slow them down, maybe make them limit their speed. At first he thought that something like that would be impossible, but as he shook his head and turned around, he saw one of the mine carts that they used to haul ore to the truck's heavy trailer. At first he thought nothing of them, but then he saw that the carts had wheels instead of repulsorlifts.

"Giles, is there a reason that your carts don't have repulsorlifts?" he asked, hoping that the reason was what he thought it was.

"What? Oh, well you see, even though we're mining for Aurodium, these hills are filled with magnium, which is worth something, but not much. We can't put repulsorlifts on the carts though, because the magnium interferes with the repulsor fields. It's a real pain too, since that means we have to push the carts manually." He stopped and gave Randal a quizzical look when he saw him smirking widely. Rika was also looking at him with an upraised brow, waiting for the inevitable explanation. Randal thought it was obvious though, so he rolled his eyes as he spelled it out to everyone.

"Magnium interferes with repulsors, and swoops run on repulsors. If we could lay down a field of magnium in the canyon, they'd have to slow down enough to not lose control. And if they slow down, we have a better chance at hitting them." Giles instantly smiled from ear to ear, and ran to tell the other miners to get busy and bring down all the magnium they could break loose. As the group of miners began to run to their shafts, Rika nodded and shrugged her shoulders.

"I never would have thought about that."

"Well, that's why I'm the Captain." Rika didn't humor Randal with a look or a roll of her eyes and instead went off to help the first of the mine carts that were coming down the path.

Otzz wiped the back of his hand over his brow and spoke just loudly enough for Randal to hear him.

"You really think we stand much of a chance?" he asked. Randal looked him back in the eye and told him the truth.

"Honestly, I don't know. From what I've seen, they've got about twenty or so swoops and we've only got twelve rifles. That means you'd each have to take out two riders, but it ain't gonna be like shooting those seed pods. Even if their going slower than normal, they're still going to be shooting back at you. We'd be lucky if we can even take out half of them before they reach that wall, and then they're gonna ride right in. From there it's gonna get real nasty real quick. If only there was some way we could take more of them out before they reached the wall."

Otzz scratched the stubble on his chin and suddenly had an epiphany.

"Explosives! We have several pounds of thermacrete that we use for the mines. We could rig it to detonators and put them out in the canyon."

"I like the way you think." Randal smirked at the old Arcanian and together they started to walk towards the small building that housed the explosives. "Something makes me think that you weren't always a miner."

"Well, I did a lot of other jobs in my younger, more foolish days," Otzz said with a knowing smile. Randal laughed as he nodded and left it at that.

* * *

Kayla finished placing a pitcher of iced garnupian pear juice and several glasses on a serving tray and walked outside. At the new rock wall, she could see Rika, who she knew as Ruxandra, overseeing the loading of the trailer of lose magnium. Up the cliff side, she could see Cal walking back down being followed by one of the other militia members, and away from the others where the _Destrier_ was landed she could see Randal and his astromech droid working at a makeshift bench. The two were alone, so she took in a deep breath and headed that way first.

Randal leaned in close as he used his cold soldering gun to fuse one of the wires to the transceiver and then secured it into the fist sized ball of thermacrete. So far, Geefive and himself had constructed nearly a dozen of the small explosive devises and they still had some of the stuff left.

"That ought to do it," he said as he gave the last one a final look over and placed it with the others. They had wired the devices to work off of signals that Geefive would monitor and then set off when a rider got close. They were still going to have to place the devices out in the canyon, but he would do that after he gave his eyes a break. When he looked up, he saw Kayla coming over with a pitcher of something that looked cold and delicious. She smiled widely as she set the tray down on the table and held up a glass.

"You want some? It's really good. I made it myself." Randal nodded and stood from the uncomfortable chair that he had been sitting in for the past hour. He took the offered glass of the cool sweet concoction and nodded his thanks as he took a long delicious drink. As he drank, he looked off towards the others who were working and saw Rika helping the miners unload their carts into the back of the truck. Kayla followed his gaze, and felt part of her inside deflate. She recognized that sort of gaze; it was the same one that she had every time she looked at Randal.

"You love her, don't you?" Kayla asked softly. Randal was taken aback and blinked several times as he tried to recover.

"What? You mean Ri-, um, Ruxandra? No," Randal said with a laugh as he took another drink of the juice. "She's more of a pain than anything else."

"And yet the two of you have traveled together for how long?" Kayla asked with raised brows and a smile.

"About two years," Randal said absent mindedly. Kayla's look turned from one of gentle curiosity to one of confusion.

"Two years? Before you told me it was six." Randal paused as he was about to bring the glass to his mouth and looked at Kayla for a moment before he spoke. He slowly lowered the glass and looked away.

"Well, it's complicated. Let's just leave it at that." Kayla nodded, and for a moment the two stood there in silence as the condensation dripped down on the pitcher.

"If it's complicated, than you'd be free to love another," Kayla said with a slight knowing smile. Randal let out a slow sigh and placed the now empty glass back on the tray.

"Look, you're a great girl, and any guy in this galaxy would be lucky to call you his. But the last thing you need is a lying scoundrel who makes his living working for the scum of the galaxy."

"Is that supposed to be you?" Kayla asked quietly. Inside, she felt herself being broken, but oddly at the same time she felt as if she knew what he was saying was true all along. She only needed to hear it to believe it.

Randal shrugged his shoulders and then continued. "You could say that. What you have here, this whole community and a place to call home, is what you deserve. Not a small cabin in a starship scrounging for credits on the hyperlanes."

"But Ruxandra does?" Kayla asked. Randal opened his mouth to continue, but was at a loss for words. Instead, he shook his head and shrugged.

"Well, that's complicated." Kayla shook her head and crossed her arms over her breast.

"There's that word again."

"Well, it's true. You should find a nice guy who can provide for you, give you a home and a family. And someone your own age, I'm nearly twice as old as you are," Randal added with a laugh. The joke broke the tension their conversation was having, and Kayla joined in the laughter, though her cheeks flushed with embarassment. Kayla picked up the serving tray and was about to walk away before she stopped and turned back to Randal.

"You know, Ruxandra isn't that much older than me." Randal smirked embarrassedly and scratched the back of his head.

"Well it's all pretty-"

"Complicated?" Kayla added with a smile. Randal laughed and nodded his head. Before Kayla left, she said one final thing. "You know, I'm glad we had this talk. It's different having an adult conversation rather than never getting it out. Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Randal said as he nodded, then went to pick up the twelve explosive devices and placed them in a large carrying bag.

Kayla walked towards the others at the loading truck, and oddly felt as if there was a heavy weight lifted from her shoulders. Part of her felt that she should be hurt that Randal had outright refused her, but in a way she knew that he was right. Even if she was overly fascinated with him now, she doubted that living a lifestyle the way he described would make her happy in the long run. In fact, she wasn't really sure how anyone could be happy doing that forever. As she neared the working miners, she saw Randal's companion and decided to ask her how she could.

As Kayla passed around glasses of the ice cool pear juice, she handed one to Rika and smiled at the young Twi'lek. Rika nodded her thanks, but could tell that Kayla had something on her mind. After she waited a moment for the young woman to speak up, and after she didn't do so, she spoke first.

"What's up? You look like you have something on your mind."

"Well, I was talking with Randal just now, and I started to wonder. Living your entire life out of a starship must be dreary, no offense meant of course," Kayla added apologetically. Rika shrugged and looked up at the _Destrier_ and wondered just what the two had talked about.

"It has its moments, but for the most part it can be tiresome." Kayla nodded and looked Rika in the eyes. Rika felt that even without knowledge of the Force, this young woman seemed to be able to see deep into her own thoughts. The thought was unnerving.

"So why do you do it? Don't you want to settle down, have a family?" Rika looked back at Kayla, and though there were a thousand answers to that question, like that sort of thing wasn't desirable or even allowed for a Jedi, but she couldn't tell her that. Instead, she couldn't think of anything convincing to say that wouldn't reveal too much about themselves. True, Randal was happy living out of his ship, and Rika was indoctrinated to desire nothing, but this girl made Rika think from a perspective that she had never thought about before. What if she wasn't a Jedi? What if she was just a regular young woman trying to find her way in this galaxy? Would she be happy in her present situation, or would she want something more? This sudden new and daunting line of thought made Rika nervous and unsure of herself. She didn't like it one bit.

"Well, I never thought about it really," was all Rika could come up with.

"Why not?" She really didn't like this line of thought at all; it was unfamiliar and alien to her. Rika wanted it to stop before she hyperventilated.

"It's complicated," was all she said as she withdrew into her glass and finished off the rest of the frigid juice. Kayla took the now empty glass from Rika and lightly smiled.

"The two of you are more alike than you think." Kayla turned to leave, but she looked back at Rika to say one last thing.

"He loves you, you know." Rika glared at Kayla with wide dumbfounded eyes and found it difficult to find her breath. Of all the things she was expecting to hear, that bombshell was definitely the last one she would have ever thought of.

"What? I don't follow you," she said as she tried to laugh it off.

"Randal," Kayla said as she nodded towards the _Destrier_. "He may not admit it, but I can tell." With that, Kayla walked away to fill the glasses of the workers.

Rika looked away and stared off at nothing as she tried to collect her thoughts. What was she talking about? Surely she was mistaken. Randal and herself were partners professionally, nothing more. He knew full well that she was a Jedi; sworn off of such things as attachment and love. But yet why now was her heart racing? Why was her breathing ragged and hollow, as if there was a whole nest of rabid gundarks in her stomach? The heat; yes, the heat of working in the sun was getting to her. Clearly Kayla was confused by whatever conversation she had with Randal, Rika knew that that was the answer. To prove it, she would just go up there and find out just what the two had talked about. Yes, that's what she would do.

Brushing off her hands on the legs of her pants, Rika left the working miners and made her way up to the _Destrier_. She found Randal in the main cabin where he was working on a multichannel transponder box at the holotable.

"Hey, what's up?" he said as he continued to work on the transponder. Rika lightly shook her head and then looked around the cabin, settling on nothing in particular. For some reason she found it difficult to look at Randal directly.

"I just had an interesting conversation with that young girl, Kayla," Rika said. Randal looked up but continued to work.

"She's not that much younger than you, really." He then looked back to the transponder and reached for a tool to continue to work. "So what you two talk about?" he asked conversationally.

Rika opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find her voice. Why couldn't she simply just say it? It really didn't matter and was a preposterous idea, that Randal was in love with her, but for some reason she couldn't find the nerve to say it out loud. Randal noticed her hesitation and stopped working as he looked up. She could feel her face flushing a light purple hue and she looked away.

"She asked me about the future and if I liked living on a star freighter. She asked me if I ever wanted to settle down and start a family," Rika said as she looked at the deck plating. Randal smirked and then leaned back in the acceleration couch.

"What you tell her?" Rika shrugged her shoulders and shifted her gaze up to the overhead.

"What _could_ I say? I just told her it was complicated." Randal let out a laugh and tightened the last screw on the transponder box and stood up. He got close to Rika and then leaned on the bulkhead next to her. Rika looked up at him and crossed her arms in uneasiness. She didn't like how close he was standing. Why she felt this way, she really couldn't tell. There wasn't any reason for it, but she still felt uncomfortable.

"I told her the same thing. But still, she raises a good point."

"What's that?" Rika said quietly.

"You really want to do this for the rest of your life? Travelling in a freighter from system to system? I'm fine with it, but are you? Maybe you should find a husband and settle down. Try living a normal life." Rika looked Randal in his dark brown eyes and could see that he was serious.

Settle down? Have a family? Have some sort of semblance of what it was like to have a "normal" life? These were all things that she had never even thought about, and before today, the thought never would have passed her mind. So why was it now? Before, her idea of a regular life was serving the Force, and by that the Republic. She didn't need to have a family; the Jedi Order was her family. Even now, they still were. Weren't they?

"A family? The Jedi were my family, and still are. That's why I'll keep searching for other survivors until I find them; even it takes the rest of my life." Randal pushed away from the wall and grabbed the transponder and started to head out of the ship with a suddenness that caught Rika off guard.

"Yeah, it's probably better that way," was all he said before he walked down the entry ramp.

What was that about? Rika briefly made to follow after him and ask what his problem was, but thought better of it. What was going on here? On one hand, Rika felt that what she had told him was right, but on the other she doubted her own words as being what she really believed. What _did_ she really believe? She was so confused and conflicted with her own thoughts that she shook her head and wondered if every Jedi student had to face this level of confusion. If her master was still alive and here, he would tell her to meditate and find her answer in the Force. But he wasn't here, and the answer wouldn't simply come to her.

Instead, Rika went to her only lasting connection with her Jedi roots. She opened the door to her cabin, and opened a hidden compartment in the bulkhead. Inside she pulled out the cold metal cylindrical weapon that was synonymous with the Jedi for a thousand generations; her lightsaber. As she held it, the once familiar feeling of the hilt brought back old memories of being beside her master, both before and during the war that had changed the galaxy forever. She hadn't carried the weapon openly on her belt since the Jedi were branded fugitives, and she hadn't carried it on her person in nearly eighteen months. Randal had told her that even if it was hidden, her natural draw to use the ancient weapon instead of the blaster on her hip would only get her in trouble, and worse yet, discovered by the agents of the Empire.

But now, with these strange and unfamiliar thoughts filling her head, she felt comforted by the elegant device, and decided to take it with her to remind herself of her sworn duty as a Jedi, even if their order was now broken. She hid the hilt of her lightsaber in her inner jacket pocket and headed back out to continue building the defenses.

* * *

A/N: A quick note about their being a Mandalorian in my story. There's been a proverbial shake-up in the EU society with the introduction of Mandalorians into the Clone Wars series and how they "changed" them. Frankly, I think the old back story can still fit in with what they've shown in the show. And besides, the show features the Death Watch, and Kual is one of them, so it still works :)


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I would have had this chapter up yesterday, but for some reason the site kept spitting it back out. Oh well, here it is. It's a longer one, with a lot of action! Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Chapter 7 Death Rides a Swoop

Jorg Dalledo paced back and forth in his lavish office, all the while glancing at the ornate chronometer on the fireplace mantel. The time was showing five minutes until noon. Again he turned to the window and looked out into the street towards the westward city entrance, and again let out a muffled curse at seeing nothing. Were those hard headed miners really so stupid that they wouldn't take his offer? It _was _generous, and much more than he wanted to pay them, but what that freighter jockey said made part of him want them to take the offer. But those squatters were proving to be as much a pain in his backside as ever. They weren't giving him much of a choice in the matter.

"Looks like they ain't going to show," Kaul said from the doorway, a wicked grin across his face that sent a chill up Dalledo's back. Dalledo lightly nodded his head and walked over to his desk. He poured himself a tall glass of brandy and held it up to his lips. He took a long burning drink, and then put the glass down on the desk.

"Well, they brought this on themselves. Take your men and end this. I don't want to know what you do out there, I just want your assurance that they'll be gone."

"Don't worry," Kaul said with a grin born from the nine hells. "When we're done, there won't be anything left to give you any trouble." With that, Kaul turned and left and soon the sounds of whooping cheers and bloodlust powered hollering came up to Dalledo's office. Dalledo pushed the thoughts of what that gang was going to do in the village out of his mind by taking another long burning drink of brandy.

BREAK

Randal let out a yawn as he checked his wrist chronometer. It was three minutes past noon. Everyone in the village had worked long into the night finishing their defensive preparations. An entire field of magnium had been created stretching out a hundred meters into the canyon, and the twelve special surprises for the swoop gang had been placed along the way. They had stopped working only a few hours before daylight, and tried to get some rest before their deadline came.

Randal stood on the entry ramp of the _Destrier_ and surveyed the village's defenses. Stretching from one side of the rocky mountainside across the valley to the other, about fifty meters in length, with a five meter gap in the middle that had a quickly made wooden gate, was the defensive wall. While the wall of boulders was about waist high, and probably would have been sufficient against a raid by the more common type of riff-raff that liked to prey on the innocent throughout the galaxy, it wasn't going to be enough for what was about to come. Working long into the night, everyone in the village had helped dig the ground behind the wall to a depth where a grown man could stand fully erect and still be concealed behind the rocks. Two of these defensive pits were dug, one on each side of the gated entrance. Both of these pits were then enclosed with more of the large rocks from the mines, and though they were running out of time, the villagers were able to cover the tops of the pits with thick wooden planks taken both from the large table in the center of the village and from some of the houses. Gaps were left in the rocks so the militia members could aim their rifles out and fire at the attackers. The backsides of these makeshift forts had a small gap so the defenders could enter and leave.

Randal would have liked more time and some better materials to build the defensive structures, but they did the best they could with what they had. Considering they had built the entire two structures in less than a day, it was pretty impressive. He just hoped that they actually worked, and didn't end up as a tomb.

As he turned to watch the villagers that were still up and about taking supplies up to one of the mines, Rika exited the small house and met up with him near the _Destrier_.

"So, what do you think?" she asked as she stood beside him and she too looked at the villagers working.

"I've got a bad feeling about all this. Those two forts, or whatever you want to call them, should give us a little more time before they overrun us. But to be honest, I'm just not sure how well we're going to do. What about you? What do you think?"

"Right now I'm wishing I would have taken you up on the blaster training lessons. Never had much use for one before, but now…"

"It's not hard. Just point the barrel at the bad guy and squeeze the trigger. Everything else is basically just luck," he said with a smirk.

"Luck," she said as she let out a slight laugh, though her heart wasn't fully in it. More times than she could count, she had told him that luck didn't exist, and it was merely the Force that guided everything. Randal didn't really buy it, so he always chose to use the term whenever he could. It was one of the little annoyances that she had grown accustomed to, maybe even a little fond of.

The sound of someone barking orders drew their attention. Giles was walking around the slower moving villagers and was continuously telling them to hurry up and get to the mines before the swoop gang showed up. When he got closer to Randal and Rika, Randal held up a hand to calm him down.

"Hey, Giles, take it easy. The swoop gang's probably not going to show up right at noon. They'll be here later if I had to guess."

"You think so?" Giles said in bewilderment. "Why?"

"Well," Randal said with a shrug, "I'm pretty sure they know that we've been awake all night building some sort of defense against them. And they probably think that we'll be expecting them to be showing up at noon. But if we're sitting here, waiting for them to show up at noon, and they don't, we'll eventually get tired. Then that's when they'll actually come."

"Possibly," Rika said. "But they don't know that we were all ready building a defense before yesterday. They could strike at noon and try to attack before we finish up our defenses." Randal opened his mouth to protest, but shrugged his shoulders when he couldn't think of an argument against what she had said. In truth, either was a possibility.

"Well, yes, I suppose you could both be right. Either way, we need to quickly get the rest of the supplies and everyone safely into the mines." Randal and Rika agreed, and went to help take some of the supplies up to the mine.

* * *

Up on the plateau next to the old mine, Ral Spero let out a jaw numbing yawn as he stretched his arms into the air as he sat on the ground of the makeshift lookout point. He had been on lookout for the past hour, and though his chronometer showed that it was ten minutes passed noon, there still was no sight of the swoop gang.

Ral gave the open countryside a once over and then reached for his thermos of tea. But as he was about to take a drink, a faint rumbling sound reached his ears. Quickly, he put the thermos down and reached for his macrobinoculars. After he brought them to his eyes and the image came into focus, he saw the large dust cloud that was trailing behind the swoop riders.

Ral frantically jumped up and fumbled through his pockets looking for the comlink. When he found it, he nervously tried to turn it on, but he was moving too quickly and dropped it. To make matters worse, the comlink fell directly into the open thermos. Now trying to avoid going into hysterics, Ral emptied the thermos out on the ground and grabbed the comlink once it fell out, but when he tried to use it, it merely sparked once and became as lifeless as the villagers would soon be unless they got the warning.

Ral began to run before he was even fully on his feet, and ran with such a speed that he didn't even know he was capable of.

* * *

Randal handed off one of the boxes of supplies and then ran his hand through his hair. He looked around at the village and noticed that while there were a few people still around, many of the villagers were nowhere to be seen.

"Everyone else all ready up in the mines?" he asked. Giles put one of the heavy boxes into a mining cart and rubbed his lower back as he responded.

"Most of them are, but there's still a lot still in their homes, trying to hide all of their more precious stuff. I've tried to tell them to just get to the safety of the mines, but they won't listen."

"Well I wouldn't worry, there's still some time before they show their mugs around here." Rika narrowed her brow and looked up at the trail that led to the lookout point and saw someone running down, waving his arms frantically.

"Is that the lookout?" Rika asked anxiously as she pointed the man out. Both Randal and Giles looked at the man as he continued to run, and Giles nervously answered.

"Yes, that's Ral." Ral continued to run and wave his arms wildly in the air, and soon the faint sound of his yelling voice came to their ears.

"Their coming! Their coming!"

Quickly Randal looked around at the village and knew that there were still too many people in the village. Even if they started to yell the warning, those that were still inside their homes might not hear. Randal's gaze fell on the triangular dinner bell that hung from a tree branch. Randal ran over to the bell and rang the bell as hard as he could, creating an alarming clanging sound that was certain to get everyone's attention. Within moments, everyone was opening their doors and quickly taking off in a run for the safety of the mines.

As the villagers ran for the mines, the members of the militia gathered around the bell. Randal stopped the ringing when he figured everyone had gotten the message and then motioned towards the two defensive structures.

"All right, this is it. You all know which one of the forts you're in. Remember your training, and keep calm," Randal said.

"And remember, don't begin to shoot until you're certain you can hit them. You don't want to waste your ammo," Rika added as everyone began to run towards the two forts. The group split in two, with Randal, Cal, and Tolas going into the left, and Rika, Giles, and Otzz taking the right.

Once inside, Randal stood by the entryway and held his DL-44 blaster in his hand. The others took up their positions facing the canyon, and nervously put their rifles out of the opening and waited. In the other fort, Rika took up the position by the door while the others took aim. Geefive rolled up to the entryway and beeped a nervous sounding question.

"Set up somewhere where you can see the canyon, but don't get into the direct fire. Set off the bombs when they get close," Rika said in answer to the droid. Geefive whistled a foreboding sounding tone and moved to the edge of the safety provided by the fort. There, he leaned forward and turned his dome so he could get a view of the ominously quiet canyon.

For what seemed like a silent eternity, they just waited. The only sound that came to their ears was that of each other's ragged breathing and the shuffling of their guns along the stones of their protective barriers. It almost seemed as if it was a false alarm, a test to see how well they could get to their posts. And just when that thought tempted to become legitimate possibility, they heard it. At first it sounded like thunder rumbling in the distance, but the rumbling began to grow until it turned into a thunderous roar. The ground beneath them began to shake, and as if they were a storm spewing forth from the other side of the canyon, the swoop riders came into view.

Nervously, the militia members watched on with eyes filled with fear as the swoops raced towards them. Randal craned his neck to watch the riders as they approached the field strewn with the magnium. The swoops began to speed up, and soon they would reach the hidden trap. Randal began to smirk as he thought of the riders losing control of their bikes, and soon he would see it happen.

One of the riders advanced further out from the rest of the gang and was the first to hit the magnium field. At first, his swoop merely wobbled from side to side, but as he tried to correct his bike, his motions translated into overcompensating, and after a few fishtailing swerves, he lost control and fell of his swoop, tumbling into the hard rock where he broke his neck.

The militia let out their first cheer at seeing one of their enemies going down, but the loss of one of their own was a clear warning to the others, who then slowed slightly and held onto their control bars firmly. Randal's smirk disappeared when he saw the swoop members continue to ride forward at a faster pace than he would have liked. At the speed that they were traveling, it would be difficult to nearly impossible for them to hit them.

Not waiting for the riders to get any closer, one of Rika's group opened fire, and soon both militia groups were opening fire on the rapidly approaching riders. Rika frowned as she watched the blaster bolts flying randomly towards the swoop riders. Most of the shots went either too high or too low to even get close. It was a far cry from the precision that she had seen from the Republic troops during the war.

Suddenly, an explosion ripped through the canyon, catching two of the riders and sending them flying to the other side of the canyon. Geefive twittered a surprised exclamation as he readied the next device.

As he rode hard, Kaul made a quick hand motion for the rest of his riders to form up. With a precision due to their professional riding skills, the Sickle Riders formed up in an arrowhead shaped formation with Kaul in the lead. He knew that if there was one explosive device in the canyon, that there probably were others. Instead of keeping his gang spread out, where they were vulnerable to the bombs, they now rode on in a tighter formation. Though this made them more of an easy target for the shooters, their erratic and seemingly random shots were of little concern.

"Come on! Calm down, make your shots count!" Randal yelled over the constant firing. Tolas took in a deep breath, and aimed carefully before he pulled the trigger. His shot fired out, and hit one of the riders square in the chest, sending him flying backwards off of his swoop. The other riders weren't going to take this idly, and they opened up with their own barrage of blaster fire, causing the militia members to instinctively duck under their cover and to momentarily stop shooting. Once the first of the bolts harmlessly hit their rocky defensives, the militia members looked back up and began to fire back.

Two more explosions ripped out from the sides of the canyon, but the tight formation of the riders kept them out of harm's way. Geefive twittered an annoyed series of sounds and withdrew behind the rocks when a bolt ricocheted near his head.

Kaul growled loudly as he continued to race forward, the entire time focusing on the wooden closed gate. That was the weakest point in the villager's defenses and would be the easiest to break through. But as they drew nearer, the continued firing from the defender's rifles made it hard to think of a way to break through. As they drew rapidly closer, Kaul gave a hand signal for the group to split, and when they were a few meters away from the wall, the group split in two and sped along the length of the defensive wall.

From inside the fort, everyone continued to fire, but now that the riders were so close, it proved difficult to focus and aim properly. Randal moved to one of the openings and aimed his blaster before he fired, hitting one of the riders in the back. The rider fell forward and off of his swoop, his bike wobbling out of control and flipping into the dirt.

After the two groups of riders split and ran the length of the defensive wall, they turned and continued to ride back and forth, continuously pelting the rocky forts with their blaster pistols. Kaul sneered and spat as he realized that this continued type of assault was going to get them nowhere, and given enough time, the defenders might actually be able to pick them all off one at a time. They needed to regroup, so Kaul gave a loud whistle and a hand signal and all the riders broke off their attack and started to fall back to the distant safety of the canyon.

As the riders started to fall back, several of the militia members continued to fire, while others started to cheer that the fight was over and that they had won. Randal, though, knew better than that.

"All right, hold your fire!" he yelled out.

"We've won! They're leaving!" Cal yelled as he jumped up and down in joyous victory.

"No, I don't think it's over," one of the other militia members said as he looked out his carbon charred opening.

"They're just regrouping; they'll make another attack pretty soon. Use this time to catch your breath, and make sure you still have enough power packs." From behind Randal, Geefive whistled an annoyed statement. He said that the riders were too far away from the explosive devices and it would be pointless to detonate the others.

"Well, hold off on detonating the rest of them. Get back to the _Destrier_ and bring the bottom cannon online. I hope we don't need to, but we may have to use it if they break through." Geefive beeped in foreboding agreement and turned to head back towards the ship.

"Is that it?" Rika asked as she stepped out of her fort. Randal leaned out and raised his brow in an unspoken sarcastic question. Rika sighed and nodded her head before she reentered her structure to tell the others.

* * *

High above the village in the largest mine shaft, Kayla continued to count heads as people entered and waited in the safety of the mines. After the last child was safely inside, she turned to see her cousin coming in having finished her head count from the other entrance.

"Is that everyone?" Loran asked.

"Yes, I think so." But even though the numbers were right, something didn't feel right in her head. When she finally determined what the uneasy feeling was, her heart dropped. "Wait, where's Sara?" Loran's eyes went wide and she shook her head.

"I thought she was with you?!?"

"No, the last I saw her she was still asleep in the house." The two girls stared wide eyed at each other. They both knew that young Sara was a very sound sleeper; it would take an entire herd of stampeding Banthas just to wake her out of a dead sleep. Without saying a word, the two girls bolted towards the mine entrance, but several of the older villagers blocked their path.

"Where are you going?!? It's dangerous out there!"

"My sister! She's still down there!" Kayla yelled as she pushed one of the blocking villagers out of her way and continued to run for the entrance. Loran tried to do the same, but the bulky miner wasn't as easily moved as the one who had tried to stop Kayla.

Kayla ran into the bright sunlight, and though her eyes seared with pain from the intensely bright light, she continued to run all out back towards the village. Down below, she could see the firefight that was ensuing, and as she neared the end of the mountain path, she saw the riders begin to ride away. Could the fight be over that fast? She didn't give herself any time to think about it; all she knew was that she had to find her little sister before it was too late.

* * *

Kaul locked up his airbrake and skidded his boot on the dark dirt as he came to a stop. The other riders stopped as well, while others continued to ride around the group, revving their engines in bloodlust.

"What's the plan, Boss?" Diejkaz asked. Kaul sneered towards the defensive wall of the village and readjusted himself on his swoop.

"We need to take out that gate, then we can ride in and really tear them up." All the riders cheered at this and revved their engines in a deadly chorus.

"That gate's in-between those two bunkers. How're we gonna take it out when we're being shot at from both sides?" one of the riders asked. Kaul gave him an evil glare and then pointed at the two defensive bunkers.

"We'll split into three groups. Two of the groups will lead the way and attack the bunkers to draw their fire. The third group will hang behind slightly, and attack the gate. Use your grenades, and blow them all to hell!" The riders erupted into another bloodthirsty roar, and with a quick twist of the throttle, they were off.

* * *

"All right, here they come!" Randal yelled as he saw and heard the swoop gang turn and start to make another attack run. Again the defenders opened fire, but the insane speeds of the swoops made their aimed shots go wide. The riders started to reposition themselves, and it looked as if they were splitting into two separate groups to attack both bunkers. Both the militia members in their forts and the incoming riders fired wildly at each other, but it was the riders that made the unexpected move.

In one simultaneous move, the riders from both groups hurled a barrage of grenades that seemed to arc in slow motion as they came down on the two hapless bunkers.

In Randal's, the militia defenders quickly ducked and covered their heads as the spherical explosives started to rain down on the top of their heads. For a second that seemed to last for an eternity, they waited as they heard the metal balls of death bounce and roll around above them before they exploded. The explosion shook the entire defensive structure and roared with the ferocity of a krayt dragon.

For a moment, all Randal could hear was an unending ringing in his ears, and it seemed as if the world itself had slowed down to a fraction of normal time. He had to blink the heavy dust that was now filling the bunker away from his vision and he tried to wave some of it away from his face as he collected himself. He could see the others inside, who were all doing the same. From what he could tell, no one was seriously hurt.

In the other bunker, they too saw the grenades coming. Everyone hit the ground and covered their heads in natural reaction. Rika was too busy trying to shoot at a group of riders that were heading directly towards the wooden gate and only saw the grenades coming down at the last possible moment. One of the riders had a lucky throw, and Rika watched on in both shock and fear as the grenade arced perfectly and entered through the opening beside her.

Acting purely on instinct, Rika threw up both hands and pushed as hard as she could with the Force, shoving the grenade out through the bunker's rear opening. But the explosive device detonated before it completely exited, and the searing flames reached back into the bunker and threatened the cowering defenders. Rika pushed with all her might, trying to keep the explosive blast away from everyone else, but the power was too much for her to contain. The explosion ripped through their protective roof, shattering the boards and sending large timbers to come crashing down. When the force of the explosion hit her, she fell backwards against the rock wall and crumpled to the ground.

For a moment, she couldn't hear or feel anything, but soon she heard the hacking coughs of those around her. With struggling effort, she raised her head and could see the others crawling through the debris. Giles was administering to Otzz, who was favoring his left shoulder.

"Everyone all right?" she asked hoarsely. Otzz looked over at her from his slumped position and tried to smile, but the pain from his shoulder cut it short.

"A lot better than we should be. That grenade came in right through that window." Rika lightly nodded and then stood to help the others who were trying to move one of the wooden timbers away from entryway.

"We got lucky on that I guess," she said with a forced smile.

Outside the man wooden gate, Kaul pulled his upper lip back in a sinister smile at the lack of blaster fire coming from the two bunkers as he crammed the last of his grenades into the wooden frame work of the gate. He pulled the activating pin, and then sped away as the jets kicked up a large cloud of dust and dirt. When the cluster of grenades went off, the wooden gate erupted into a fiery ball of smoldering wood and tumbling splinters. With a venomous cackle, the Sickle Riders revved their engines and raced towards the flaming entrance.

* * *

Kayla continued to run for her small house, but the rapid succession of ear splitting explosions sent a massive shockwave out that knocked her off of her feet. When she picked herself up, her jaw dropped in absolute shock as she saw two massive smoke columns coming from the makeshift bunkers, and another thicker burning plume coming from the gate. Soon she heard the revving of the swoops, and it wasn't long before the first of the riders broke through the smoldering wreckage and entered the village proper.

Pushing herself up with all the energy she could muster, she again started to run towards her house, flailing her arms and heaving for breath as she drove on out of sheer will.

Randal could hear the sounds of the swoops coming from the other side of the defensive wall, and after a quick look out the back entrance way, he saw the first of the swoops entering the village. Acting out of pure instinct, Randal leveled the barrel of his blaster and fired one powerful blast that caught the rider square between the shoulder blades and sent the now lifeless body tumbling over the handlebars. But before Randal could take aim at another rider, blaster bolts started to rain down on his position, so he had to pull back to the safety of the smoke filled bunker.

Rika helped push the final timber out of the way of the entrance, and was almost shot point blank as a rider pulled up and aimed directly into the bunker. A red searing bolt flew past her and hit the rider in the chest before he could get a shot off. Rika quickly turned around and saw Otzz holding the smoking blaster pistol in his hand. He lightly nodded to her and she nodded back her thanks. Rika pulled her blaster out of the still new holster on her hip and after hefting the weight of the unfamiliar weapon in her hand, she quickly took aim and started to fire.

Kayla jumped behind one of the homes as blaster shots began to get too close to her general area. She allowed herself only a moment to catch her breath and then took off again. As she ran between two houses, a rider caught sight of her and quickly diverted his path to intercept her. Quickly, Kayla ran around the corner of a house and ran as fast as she could to the other side. When she reached it, she ducked around the corner and leaned against the wall, her breathing now so ragged that each breath was searing her lungs as if they were being cut with jagged glass. At first, it seemed as if the rider had moved on, but soon she heard the sounds of boots walking on the house's wooden porch.

"Come out little girlie, I know you're there, I can _smell_ you!" Kayla tried her best to hide the shudder of revulsion that coursed through her, but her assailant must have heard. Suddenly a wide yellow toothed grinning face of a Nikto was sneering from around the corner. She instinctively jumped at the sight, which only made Diejkaz more excited. He reached out for her with a greedy hand, but she was barely able to move out of the way and started to run again for her house. Diejkaz laughed in evil delight and took out after her.

From inside the bunker, Randal continued to fire from the relative safety of the bunker walls, but without sticking his head out, he couldn't get that great of an aim. His comlink started to beep just loudly enough to be heard over the din of battle, and he pulled back and answered. Geefive anxiously asked if he wanted him to open fire on the gate, hitting any of the swoops that were coming through. Randal was about to give him the go ahead, but Cal jumped up and bolted out of the bunker, running and yelling at the top of his lungs.

"KAYLA!!!" Cal yelled as he took out at a flat out run, throwing all caution to the winds as blaster bolts flew passed. Any thought for his own safety went directly out of his mind when he caught the sight of Kayla being chased by one of the villainous riders.

Randal cursed aloud and told Geefive to hold his fire. After he quickly dropped out his power pack and loaded in a fresh one, he jumped out of the bunker and started to fire as rapidly as he could as he moved to follow Cal, though the incoming shots made him duck and move behind the cover of a large tree where he soon lost sight of Cal.

Rika caught sight of Cal running into the village proper, and then saw Randal trying to follow, but then saw him get pinned down behind a tree. If the riders continued to attack like they were, she knew that he wouldn't last long out there.

Swearing to herself that she would give him a long drawn out piece of her mind if they survived this, she took in a deep breath and ran out of the bunker.

Kayla saw the front door to her house, but the excruciating pain that was now coursing through her entire fatigued body threatened to keep her from reaching it. But a quick glimpse behind her showed that the raving monster was still hot on her heels, and it was enough to push her forward. She reached the door, and threw it open as fast as she could, got inside, and then slammed the door in Diejkaz's face. But even though she fully engaged the lock, Diejkaz merely shot the lock off the door, and then shoved the door inwards, hitting Kayla full force.

Kayla fell flat on her back and tried to pick herself up, but all the exertion that she had put on herself had finally caught up with her. Her arms merely shook as she tried to push up, and as they gave out, she fell back onto the floor. Diejkaz stood in the doorway and grinned wickedly as he watched the frantically panting Kayla try and shuffle backwards.

He watched her as she looked back at him with eyes wide open in fear with pure carnal delight before he moved further into the house. Kayla tried to scream, but she couldn't find the energy to even do that. Diejkaz reached down with his filthy grubby hands, and just when he was about to touch her, the bone-chilling sound of a blaster being set to overload came from behind him.

"Get away from her!" Cal yelled firmly as he leveled the blaster at the assailant. Diejkaz turned his head around to see the young man standing there, and then looked him directly in the eyes. For an eternal moment, the two merely stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Faced with life and death in such a manner that he had always thought would be somehow different than this, Cal's resolve momentarily faltered, and Diejkaz saw it in his eyes: the boy had froze. With blinding speed, Diejkaz both spun fully around and pulled his blaster. But before he could get the shot off, Cal snapped out of his fear induced trance and released the over charged blast directly into Diejkaz's chest. Not even waiting to see if his shot had hit his target, Cal continued to rapidly pull the trigger until his power pack died.

Diejkaz's smoking corpse hit the floor in front of Kayla, who had now found enough energy to pull herself halfway back up using the far wall. Cal briefly looked down at the now dead body only long enough to make sure that he was dead, and then ran over to Kayla and helped her up.

"You okay?" Cal heard himself ask, but his own voice sounded distant and ethereal. Kayla looked up at the distant look in Cal's eyes and nodded her head. It only took a moment for her to remember the whole reason that she was here.

"Sara! Sara's still in here!" She took off for the bedroom, Cal's left hand in hers, but she nearly got her arm pulled out of its socket as Cal was still rooted in his spot. She shook his arm and tried to get him to move, but his eyes were locked on the smoldering corpse of the once living Nikto.

The first overcharged blast had caved in his chest and had killed him instantly, but the other five shots that Cal had hit him with deformed the body into a gruesome sight that he would never be able to forget. Kayla only briefly followed his eyes and instinctively recoiled at the sight. Cal's face became a sickly pale white and he was just a hair's breath away from vomiting.

Kayla had to put a hand on Cal's chin and forcibly turn his gaze away. Cal's eyes took a moment to focus and when they finally did, he lightly shook his head and looked at Kayla.

"What?" he lightly said.

"Sara's still in the house," Kayla said as she took Cal by the hand and led him away from the dead body. In the bedroom, they found Sara cowering in-between her bed and the wall. When she saw her older sister, she jumped up and ran into her arms. Cal ejected the spent power pack from his blaster and reloaded a new one, though he probably wasn't aware that he even did it; he was now wired into survival mode. As Kayla and Sara held each other, crying and telling each other that they loved the other, the continuous sounds of blaster fire continued outside.

* * *

Randal pressed his back against the hard surface of the tree and fired blindly behind him by crossing his arm over his body. After the shot, the red warning light on the power pack blinked twice, letting him know that it was running low. Incoming blasts hit the protective tree, shattering large splinters off. If he didn't get away from the relative safety of the tree soon, there wouldn't be much of anything to use as cover left.

He cursed to himself as he ejected the nearly depleted power cell and jammed in a fresh one. Before he began to fire again, he let out a breath and looked up to the sky. "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one." Quickly, he ventured a peak around what was left of his cover, and saw several of the swoops now starting to head his direction. He swallowed what fear might be coming to his mind at what was likely to be his imminent death, and fired at the oncoming riders, but missed by a mere fraction of an inch. He was about to fire again, but something distracted the riders and drew their attention away from him. He threw all caution to the wind and stuck his head out fully to see what it was. What he saw made his eyes open wide in shock, but oddly enough he wasn't surprised at her actions.

Rika ran towards the three swoop riders who were shooting at Randal, and she fired a few shots at them, but her lack of familiarity with the weapon made her shots go wide. But though the shots missed, they did draw their attention and the quickly turned their swoops away from Randal's position and speeded away in a collision course with her.

Rika continued to fire, but her power pack ran dry, making the weapon a useless if not tastefully designed flimsi-weight. Acting on her years of training and muscle memory, she ditched the blaster and reached into her inner jacket pocket. The closest rider fired wildly and after missing, decided to just run her down. But as the swoop was a mere meter away, Rika leaped into the air, ignited her blue lightsaber, and cleaved the head off of the rider.

As she landed, she deflected incoming blaster bolts as if it were as natural as breathing in the air. One of the blasts got deflected right back at its shooter, hitting him in the chest. The remaining of Randal's attackers, the gang leader Kaul himself, sneered wildly when he saw the ancient and synonymous weapon of the Jedi Knights. Among Mandalorians, taking on a Jedi in a fight was a true test of one's skills. He had never had the opportunity to fight one, and after the bloody end of the war, he doubted that he would ever get the chance. But now, fate had given him that chance.

Kaul speed off towards the Jedi, not firing his blaster at her as the other fool had done. Rika saw Kaul barreling towards her, but instead of running, she stood her ground and took up a defensive stance. Kaul had seen what she had done to the first of her kills, and veered off at the last second, jumping from his swoop in an attempt to tackle her.

Rika was at first taken back by his attack; she had been focused on the swoop instead of Kaul himself. But when he veered the swoop away and leapt off, she instinctively threw up her hand and pushed him away with all the might she could muster from the Force.

Kaul's expression changed from one of driven determination to one of confusion as he was hurled backwards with a force that hit him square in the chest, driving all breath out of his lungs. He hit the ground roughly twenty meters away, and rolled unnaturally before he came to a stop on his stomach.

He forced himself backup and ignored the throbbing pain that was now coursing through his body. Clearly he couldn't judge the Jedi merely by her looks; she possessed a strength that far surpassed her physical limitations. As he looked back at her, she was now beginning to charge towards him, her deadly blazing blade held at the ready.

Knowing that the entire assault on this simple mining village was now far beyond what he originally thought it was going to be, he instantly made the decision to retreat. If it wasn't for the intervention of a Jedi, the battle was winnable. But now, the odds fell heavily on the side of the villagers. And besides, Dalledo wasn't paying them enough to take on a Jedi.

Kaul turned and ran to the nearest one of his riders who had stopped, and without telling him anything, backhanded him off of his swoop and took control of it. With a loud whistle and a spinning finger in the air, the Sickle Riders turned away from their attack and raced back into the canyon.

Rika slowed her run and stopped as she watched the remaining riders take off, and after a moment they were only clouds of dust trailing off into the canyon.

For a moment, Rika continued to stand watching the dust clouds, her lightsaber humming strongly at her side. Slowly, the militia members started to exit their battered bunkers and briefly looked around before their eyes fell on Rika. It took a few minutes before any of them spoke, and when they did, it was only mere whispers to one another.

Randal walked up beside Rika, and holstered his blaster. He placed his soot covered hand on Rika's shoulder, and the touch drew her out of her stoic stare at the canyon where the riders once were. She slightly jumped at his touch and then looked up at him, who was giving her a look that both conveyed his thanks for getting him out of a jam, but also let her know that he was annoyed with her. She lightly shrugged her shoulders and deactivated her lightsaber.

"I thought you weren't going to carry that anymore?" Randal asked with a slight smirk.

"I thought I might need it," Rika answered guiltily. Randal let out a sigh and turned to look at the militia members, who were now starting to gather in a single group, all of them still staring at the pair.

"Well, I'm glad you thought that. I guess we're going to have to explain some things, though."

"There's nothing to explain," Giles said as he was the first of the militia group to approach the pair, a wide grateful smile on his face. "I'm sure you had your reasons for not telling us you were a Jedi, but we're just glad you were here. We couldn't have done any of this without you, and we're forever grateful to the both of you." Everyone added their own thankful words, and shook both of their hands and continuously patted them on the back with jarring enthusiasm.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. Strep throat makes you not want to really do much :( Hopefully you enjoy this chapter and it makes up for it!

* * *

Chapter 8 Eye of the Storm

Kaul violently locked up the airbrake, jumped off, and flipped his swoop over in anger. Around him in the hangar of Dalledo's building, the remaining members of the Sickle Riders shut down their swoops and counted their numbers. In all, they had lost ten brothers and eleven swoops. While they were all infuriated, all of their anger combined didn't come close to the rage that Kual was in.

The leader cursed aloud in over a hundred different languages, and when he couldn't find a word fitting enough, he described it as best as he could in Mando'a. Eventually he went silent, save for the heavy breathing that was coming through his distorted nostrils. None of the members of his gang said a word, though even if they wanted to, they couldn't think of anything to say anyways.

Dalledo heard the loud commotion that was coming from his hangar, and he drunkenly opened the door to see what the commotion was. "What's all this about? Those villagers history?" Dalledo asked; it was obvious that he continued to drink his brandy long after the Sickle Riders had departed. When no one volunteered any information, Dalledo's face turned a bright red and he started to yell.

"What the kriff happened?!? Where are the rest of your men? Did those villagers actually beat the Sickle Riders?!? What good are you?!? I thought I was paying for world class mercenaries, not a bunch of miscreants that can't even handle a village of yokels! I should have hired a bunch of kriffing Trandoshans! At least those scaly bastards would have done something! Mandalorian, now that's a joke! No wonder your people got wiped out by a bunch of extinct warrior monks! Maybe I should have looked for one of them to-" Dalledo's words were cut short by the durasteel-like grip of an enraged Kual.

"Watch what you say, Fatman. I'd hate for your last words to be a lie." Dalledo's red face turned a sickly shade of blue, and his choking only lessened when Kaul loosened his grip slightly. Dalledo raggedly inhaled and then looked at Kaul with a renewed anger.

"Let me go, or you'll never see a credit!" Kual stared him down for a long silent minute, and then released him. Dalledo fell back and inhaled several breaths deeply until his normal color returned.

"There," Dalledo said as he stood back up fully, a new found confidence in his voice. "Every beast can be controlled with the proper reigns." Kual briefly turned away, but swiftly turned around with his blaster now out and pointed directly at Dalledo's head. But instead of looking afraid, Dalledo merely smiled and shook his head.

"What are you going to do, shoot me? Who's going to pay you then?" Kual sneered widely, and looked Dalledo in the eyes with a wild insanity.

"Something'll come up," was Kaul's last statement to his one-time employer before he pulled the trigger and redecorated the far hangar wall with the fat man's brains. Kual watched the headless body slump to the ground, and reveled at watching the oozing goo slide down the far wall.

After he holstered the weapon and walked away from the corpse, several of the gang members exchanged a couple of looks and eventually one of the less intelligent ones spoke up.

"Uh, Boss? We're glad that the Fatman's dead, we all hated him. But, uh, exactly how are we going to get paid now?" Kual shot him a glare, and the speaker reeled back in fear. Kual then looked at the rest of his gang, and saw that though none of them wanted to ask themselves, they were all wondering the same thing. Kual cracked his neck and then motioned his head in the direction of the village.

"You all saw what they had up there, right?" he asked. Several of the members nodded their heads, but a different member spoke up this time.

"That wall?" Kual took in a deep breath and shook his head. How did he end up with this bunch of idiots?

"No, not the wall! The girl! That Twi'lek Jedi! She's our ticket to pay dirt. The Empire's offering a bounty of a million credits for any that can be brought in alive. And that's what we're going to do." Slowly, one by one, each of the gang members got a large wide grin on their faces, and soon they were all planning on how they were going to spend their share of the bounty.

* * *

Several hours after the last dust trail of the fleeing swoops faded away, the small mining village of New Beginning was living up to its name. After quickly removing the bodies of the dead swoop gang members and setting up some of the rubble as a makeshift gate, the villagers had returned from the safety of the mines and were now celebrating their victory over Dalledo and his hired goons.

Everyone was gathered in the center of the village where the long table used to be. Several of the people were playing music with an upbeat tempo and the children and several of the adults were dancing joyously. Others were handing out what simple food items that could be made in a hurry while even others were enjoying the simple treats. The adults were also sharing in taking part of drinking different alcoholic liquids ranging in all colors of the spectrum.

Several of the younger people, including a few of the older ones as well, were gathered around Rika and were pelting her with questions about the Jedi. She wasn't used to this sort of attention, but she did the best she could in answering their questions.

Randal listened to the barrage for a few minutes, and after catching Rika's eye and giving her a smirk, he took the bottle of Corellian spiced rum that he had been saving in his personal stash and started to walk around, giving pats on the back and shaking hands of the thankful people. After his hand started to get sore from all the shaking, he broke off from the main group to get some air. There sitting at a small table away from the others was Cal. Cal briefly looked up when Randal stepped up, and then returned to looking at his hands which were clasped on the table.

"You all right?" Randal asked with a concerned look on his face. Cal looked back up, a glassy faraway look in his eyes.

"I was just thinking about the fight. I didn't really think it was going to be like that," Cal said with a faint voice as he shook his head. Randal frowned slightly and took a seat opposite him.

"It never is. Holovids always make it out to be a certain way, but they never show the nasty parts." Cal nodded slightly and opened his hands. Randal could see that his hands were visibly shaking.

"You know, I didn't think when I saw Kayla being chased by that Nikto. I just ran out there after her. When I caught him, I froze for a second; I wasn't sure I could do it. But then I thought that if I didn't do it, he'd hurt Kayla, and I pulled the trigger. Blew his damned face off," Cal said as his voice shuddered, his control over himself was slipping. Cal shut his eyes and tried to contain himself, but his body started to shake uncontrollably.

"Here, kid. Take a drink," Randal said as he pushed the bottle towards him. Cal took the bottle and took a swift burning gulp and nearly coughed as the sweet flaming liquid seared through his body. "Just remember that it was either him or Kayla. He didn't give you much of a choice. Don't look at it any other way, that'll only drive you crazy."

"Yeah, it was either him or Kayla. I had no choice," Cal said as he slowly got control back over himself. Randal nodded and vaguely remembered what it was like for his first kill in self defense. The situation was different, but the outcomes were the same; it was either them or him. Randal leaned back and stifled a scowl. No matter how often one justifies it, it still dwells on the mind. Randal let out a sigh through his nose and pushed it out of his thoughts, the same way he always did when the memory resurfaced.

"Just remember, the only thing that separates us from them is that we pull the trigger in self defense, not in cold blood like they do." Cal nodded and then looked up at the evening orange hued sky.

"They're just animals, bad men. I'll do what I have to do to defend what I love. I just hope I never have to do it again." Randal smirked and nodded, and then saw Kayla approaching wearing a beautiful blue dress.

"Well, hopefully you won't have to. But of all the things you picked to defend, you picked one of the best ones I'd say." Cal hadn't seen Kayla approaching yet and at first looked at Randal with a puzzled look. But once he heard her walking up to them, he lightly smiled and turned towards her.

"Oh, just talking about stuff. Why don't the two of you go have fun, enjoy the party?" Randal said with a hidden wink at Cal. Cal opened his mouth to speak, but he got caught by Kayla's beautiful smile.

"Yeah, Cal. You want to dance with me?" Cal fought hard to find his voice, but had the mind to at least nod his head vigorously when he couldn't find the words. She smiled warmly at the young man and then turned to head back to the party. Randal grinned widely and motioned towards the bottle.

"Go ahead, Cal. Take another drink for courage." Cal laughed, and before he stood, took another swig from the bottle and jumped up running to follow the love of his life. Randal watched the pair walk together to the main group and reached for the bottle from the other side of the table. He took a drink of the fiery amber fluid and stood from the table. He was about to start walking again on a half hearted inspection of the defensive wall to see if everything was still standing properly, but Rika waved him over from where she stood.

When he got to where she was at, she playfully punched him in the arm and continued to tell a story that she was telling to those still gathered around her.

"So there we were, stuck on an old Separatist battleship and directly in front of us was not only one Imperial ship, but two!" Several of the children took in a deep breath of shock and amazement as they clung to every word she said. "And then it was Captain Sarn here, who came up with the idea of ramming the battleship into the larger Imperial ship. And it worked, and we were barely able to escape in the _Destrier_ before the two ships exploded. BOOM!!!" At her wide armed and boisterous finale of her story, the children erupted into applause and begged for her to tell them another, but their parents came up and told them to stop bugging the young Jedi. As the kids pouted and grumpily walked away, Randal laughed and shook his head at Rika's display.

"You know, I remember it being a lot more stressful than that at the time." Rika shrugged her shoulders and smiled widely. She placed her hands on her hips, her left one playing with the belt connector of her lightsaber.

"It feels good to be able to wear this on my belt openly again," she remarked.

"Yeah, but it's only temporary. We're going to have to leave here soon, probably tomorrow," Randal said. Giles overheard him and came over to talk.

"So soon? We'd be more than happy if you stayed, as long as you liked."

"Well the offer's generous and we are grateful for it, but word about what happened here's going to spread pretty quickly. It'd be best if we weren't around once the rumors about a Jedi started to get around," Randal said. Rika nodded in agreement, but the slight frown she wore showed that she didn't want to leave so soon.

"Well, you have our thanks, and I doubt even if we kept saying it for the rest of eternity that it would be enough. But, something I was wondering; do you think those swoop riders will try and come back up here?"

"No, I don't think so," Rika said. "They were only being paid to drive you out of here because Dalledo didn't want to make much of a commotion out of it. But after what happened here today, he's going to be pretty hard pressed to try and deny what he's been doing to the proper authorities, even if he does have the credits to bribe some of them. When word gets out, even the most corrupt officials aren't going to be able to keep anything from being noticed. No, I don't think you have anything to worry about from Dalledo or his gang."

"That's good," Giles said. "But just to be safe, we'll keep someone posted up at the lookout just in case." Randal and Rika nodded in agreement.

The evening sky was beginning to turn a dark purple hue, but the quick flashes of light coming from the other side of the mountainside that backed up to the village caught everyone's eye.

"What's that?" Randal asked after the first cracks of thunder reached his ears. Tolas looked up, and after seeing a succession of lightning strikes, answered.

"It's a summer thunderstorm. They pop up unexpectedly and hit pretty hard. Looks like this is going to cut the party short." No sooner was he done speaking that the air temperature started to drop rapidly, and the wind began to blow into the valley with a ferociously rising speed. While the children laughed as the leaves and napkins flew away in the wind, the adults were busy picking up the dishes and started to head back to their homes. Before long, the first of the large heavy drops of rain hit the ground, soon followed by more and more of its brethren, until a torrential downpour started.

Randal and Rika helped the others finish picking up anything else that needed to be put up even through the heavy rain. When everything was up, and most of the doors to the homes were now shut tight, the two ran back to the _Destrier_'s waiting ramp. The duo stood in the protective covering of the ship and shook of their rain drenched arms. Randal started to go up into the ship, but Rika slapped her forehead and made to go back out into the rain.

"Hey, where you going?" Randal asked.

"I forgot to check on Otzz. He said he was going to be fine but I just want to make sure." With a brief smile, she covered her head and took off back into the storm. Randal shook his head and watched her run back into the village, the entire area lighting up with a flash of lightning.

* * *

Ral Spero cursed his unfortunate luck at having to be the lookout as he tried to fix his makeshift covering. The rain was pouring down hard now, the lightning strikes flashing constantly and illuminating everything around him, though the rain was pouring so hard that it obscured anything beyond two meters. How he was supposed to see anything or anyone approaching the village from the canyon below, he had no idea. But everyone down there was counting on him, so he just grumbled to himself as he pushed a stick into the meager fire that was clinging to life through all the rain.

Something revealed in the latest lightning flash caught his eye, but when he tried to focus on whatever it was, he only saw more falling rain. He briefly thought about getting up and seeing if it was anything worth checking out, but the thought of getting even more drenched made him look back down at the fire.

But just as easily as he made that decision, he instantly changed it and wished that he had moved. A razor sharp deathly cold serrated knife blade pressed at his neck and slashed across, spilling his crimson blood out on the ground.

As Kaul watched the last breaths of life escape from the village lookout, he wiped the blade haphazardly on his sleeve and then stepped back into the deluge. The remaining members of his gang stood around, though they didn't seem to be as indifferent to the storm as Kual did. Kaul put his knife back into its scabbard on his vest and addressed his men.

"All right, listen up. You two are coming into the village with me and will grab the Jedi; everyone else will spread out along the trail here and fire randomly into the village. Wait for my signal flare when we get the Jedi, then open fire. Any questions?"

"Uh, what about that ship they have down there? When we were raidin' the place last time, I saw one of the cannons moving." Some of the other riders agreed, while others kidded him about seeing nothing. Kaul removed a grenade from his belt and tossed it to the one who asked the question.

"It doesn't matter whether it moved before or not. What matters is if it moves tonight. Take that ion grenade and when we sneak into the village, toss it up into the ship. That'll knock it out of commission but not make any noise for that Jedi to hear us. Remember, we need to catch her by surprise, otherwise we're just wasting time. Now everyone understand the plan? Let's move out!"

* * *

Randal let out an exhausted sigh as he entered his cabin and closed the door before he flopped down onto his bunk. His clothes were still dripping wet, but after the long day he had, he didn't care if he got the bedding wet or not. After relaxing for a few minutes, he begrudgingly got up to take the wet clothes off, but a strange metallic clanging sound came to his ear. At first, he didn't know what it was, perhaps debris from a tree or something hitting the hull from the storm. But after the third impacting sound, he realized that it was not coming from outside, but from inside the ship.

It only took a second before he realized what it was, but by then it was too late. The ion grenade bounced along the corridor and rolled into the main cabin area, where it began to whine fiercely while its power core went critical. With an eerily silent, yet dazzlingly brilliant display of blue-white lightning, the grenade detonated, sending its silent ionic tendrils of electrons coursing through the interior of the ship. As the overloading power flowed wildly through the ship, all of the ship's systems overloaded and then shorted out. The lights inside flickered and died with hissing and popping electronics as their circuits were overloaded and flipped the safety breakers.

Inside Randal's cabin, the lights flickered and died. And just as quickly as the attack came, it ended. Randal sat in absolute darkness for a moment, the only sound being his own breathing and the echo of the rain hitting the hull. After a moment, the emergency secondary lights turned on, filling his room with pale amber light.

Randal jumped to door, but in his haste forgot that the hydraulic system was now shut down and ran into the unyielding durasteel. After grumbling and being glad that no one was there to see that, he frantically undid the service panel next to the controls and began to prime the manual release of the door lock. After a few cycles on the small pump, the door released, and he had to push it the rest of the way open.

When he entered the cabin, acrid ozone hinted smoke still lingered on the overhead, looking strange as the amber secondary lights illuminated the cabin. Geefive came rolling in from the cockpit, excitedly twittering and beeping in his electronic language.

"Must have been an ion grenade. The only one I can think of who would do this is Kaul..." Randal trailed off and shared a look with the astromech. If Kaul and his gang had returned, it was for only one reason. "Rika!" Randal quickly pulled his blaster pistol and ran through the cabin to the entry ramp. The rain was still coming down hard, but he took off in a dead run, all the while having only one thing on his mind.

* * *

Rika shielded her head with her arms as she exited Otzz's home. The old Arkanian was recovering well, though it would still be a couple of days before he was up and able to work again. She was glad to see him smiling though; taking a piece of rock shrapnel in the arm was no easy task, but he was handling it as if it were merely a scratch.

Rika lightly ran into the rain and headed towards the _Destrier_ on the other end of the village. But as she passed the small houses, all with their windows closed and the warm dry light from within pouring out, she had a strange feeling in the back of her mind. She slowed her run until she completely stopped.

Something wasn't right here; there was cold deep hatred coming to her, as if someone or something was determined to do someone bodily harm. It was the dark side of the Force that she was sensing, though it wasn't coming from a Force sensitive. No, this was merely a projection of the internal emotions of a person, and it was directed solely at her!

Instinctively, she pulled out her lightsaber, but before she could activate the blade, something sharp and small hit her hard in the neck. She fell back against a wall to a house and pulled whatever the offensive thing was, and when she held it in her hand she saw a poisoned dart.

From in front of her, she could hear the voice of someone giving an order, and she pushed herself away from the wall and ignited her lightsaber. As she stepped forward, her vision slightly blurred and she found it difficult to maintain her balance.

Someone in front of her tried to grab her, but an unbalanced swing of her lightsaber caught the attacker across the torso. As she tried to regain her balance, the screams from the dying man filled the village.

Again Rika felt the sharp sting from one of the poisoned darts, but instead of just one, she was hit with three more. Her vision started to swirl all around her and she called fully upon the Force to keep her standing, but even with the power of the Force fully flowing through her, she was barely able to stay standing on two feet.

From what she was able to make out in her dizzy state, she saw a large figure walk up to her and look at her with a sneer before he raised the butt of his pistol and brought it down sharply on her head. The last thing she saw was the mud covered ground racing towards her.

Kual sneered as he watched the Jedi female smack face first into the mud and then reached down and pulled her over his shoulder. He motioned to his remaining man, who was returning from disabling the smuggler's ship, and then pulled his flare gun out of his side holster. He fired the red glowing ball into the air, and then ran to where the villagers had grouped their "captured" speeders. He jumped on and fired the engine up, all the while holding the Jedi on his shoulder.

Randal ran around the corner of a house and saw the Mandalorian bastard taking off on his speeder. He fired a few shots at his general direction, but once he saw Rika lifelessly hanging off of his shoulder, he stopped. The other intruder was about to take off on another speeder bike, but Randal fired quickly and hit him in the back. As Randal pushed his body off and climbed onto the speeder, blaster fire began to rain down from the cliff side trail leading up to the lookout point. Those villagers that had opened their front door to see what the commotion was about instantly jumped back into the safety of their homes as the rounds began to pelt the village.

Randal kicked off from the ground and cranked the throttle to full as he took off in hot pursuit. He narrowly managed to fit the swoop through a gap in the debris filled gateway, and took off towards the rapidly accelerating Kual.

Kaul continued to speed away, but Randal was catching up. Randal cursed the swoop and willed it to go faster as the engine strained to keep up with his demands. He inched closer and closer, and just when he was within range of ramming Kual's speeder with the control ailerons, Randal's swoop suddenly began to shake violently and he had to hold on tightly to try and stop the swoop from spiraling out of control. But Randal wasn't as skilled at piloting a swoop as Kual was, and even though he tried to maintain control, he soon tilted too far to his left and tumbled off.

Randal rolled a few times and eventually came to a stop against a shrub that pierced his jacket in several spots. He quickly got back to his feet and ran to the swoop lying on its side, but by the time he got it back upright, Kual was long gone.

Randal let out a furious expletive that would make even the most seasoned lady of ill repute blush. With a fire of pure fury burning deep inside him, he turned the swoop back around and raced back towards the village. When he returned, several of the villagers, and most of the militia members, were standing outside.

"What happened?"

"What did they want?"

Randal angrily parked the swoop and stalked off silently towards the _Destrier_. Those members of the militia that had worked with Randal looked at each other in fear of the unknown side of their one time savior. Why was he so furious and what was he going to do?

Kayla pushed her way through the crowd, with Cal right behind her. As they listened to the people wondering about what had just happened, a few of them commented that Randal was acting rather rude. Something cylindrical and shiny on the mud covered ground caught Kayla's eye and she bent down to see what it was. Though she had only heard about them, and had only caught a brief glimpse of it earlier, she knew that it was a lightsaber; Rika's lightsaber to be exact.

"They took her," she said as she turned around to the others, showing them the weapon. "They came in here and took her. We've got to do something!" A few of the gathered crowd exchanged incredulous looks, while others sheepishly turned and walked away.

"What? You're not going to do anything? They risked everything to help us, and you're just going to turn your backs on them now?" Cal said accusing everyone there.

"It's not that, really. But we can't possibly go after her; we're too few. We can defend ourselves, yes, but attack?" Giles said as he shook his head. Cal shook his head furiously and headed off towards Randal's ship, Kayla close behind him.

"I can't believe them! All this time and they just choose to do nothing when it doesn't affect them!"

"They're just miners, Kayla. Just standing up to Dalledo and those goons was a stretch for them."

As they got to the entry ramp of the _Destrier_, they carefully looked inside to where the dim yellow lights were casting odd shadows. From within, they could hear Geefive twittering and whistling in an argumentative manner. Cal and Kayla shared a look, but before Cal could suggest waiting outside, Kayla walked up the ramp. Cal shook his head, but reluctantly followed.

"What? Well how bad is it?" Randal angrily asked. Geefive swiveled his domed head back and forth and teetered from one side to the other as he frustratingly replied. He said that the ion grenade had overloaded the ship's computer and it would take some time for the system to be degaussed.

"How long?" Randal asked flatly. Geefive answered shortly; at least two standard hours. Randal angrily turned around and kicked the base of the acceleration coach, and then briefly looked up at both Cal and Kayla. Without saying a word, Randal turned around and entered his cabin, where he pulled a long locked metal case out from up under his bunk. Cal peeked around the corner from the open doorway and watched as Randal undid the locks and opened the box.

"What's that?" he asked. Randal didn't turn around, but continued to pull the massive meter long cannon out of the box.

"It's a disruptor cannon. They're illegal on nearly every civilized system in the galaxy, and for good reason. A shot from one of these could melt straight through the hull of any starship." With the final word, Randal opened the massive wheeled breech and loaded in six of the large diameter energy shells. Disruptors were known for being highly devastating and destructive, but that amount of firepower came at the cost of consuming a vast amount of energy. Each of the six shells was only good for one shot before they were depleted. Randal loosened the fiber weave shoulder sling and then grabbed the one extra set of energy shells he had and exited his cabin.

"What are you going to do with that? Walk straight into their hideout and get into a shootout?" Kayla asked incredulously. Randal shrugged his shoulders and tried to step around her, but she sidestepped to continue blocking his path. When he realized that she wasn't going to let him get by, he sighed and then cocked one of his eyebrows.

"I haven't thought that far ahead yet. You don't know me that well, but I pretty much make things up as I go. Now why don't the two of you run along back home? I've all ready got enough on my conscience with them having Rika, I don't need your lives hanging over my head." Kayla at first just crossed her arms and stared Randal down, but when he stared back, she could see that there was something different and cold in his look. Whatever this new resolve was, it scared her enough to step aside. Randal went passed the entry ramp and entered the engine room, where Geefive had stored the undetonated permacrete charges that were planted in the canyon. As he stored those in a bag, Cal took Kayla by the arm and led her out and away from the ship.

Randal reentered the main cabin and hefted the weight of both the disruptor cannon and the bag of charges on his shoulders. Geefive whistled a brief question, and Randal shook his head.

"No, I can't ask them to do anything like that, they're just kids. Besides, it's not going to be pretty. Keep your comlink open. Once I get Rika back, we're going to have to make a quick exit from this planet. You should have the ship ready to go by then, right?" Geefive whistled and affirmative and went back to priming the degaussing coils.

As Randal walked back outside and made his way back to the swoop he had rode in on, the rain from the storm continued to pour down heavily, the lightning creating shadows from the trees that looked like skeleton fingers reaching out to grab the living. Randal jumped onto the swoop and fired up the repulsor engine, and thought that the description of the shadows was pretty accurate.

But as Randal was about to twist the throttle and head away from the village, another swoop pulled up alongside of him, Cal driving and Kayla holding on behind him. Randal looked over and noticed the two blaster rifles they had strapped to the sides of their swoop.

"Where are you two going? I thought I told you to go home?" Randal said.

"Yeah, we know you said that. But we're telling you that you're not going into that town by yourself. We're going with you whether you like it or not," Cal said. Randal at first looked as if he was going to get mad, but his frown turned into a smirk and he nodded towards the open canyon.

"It's not going to be pretty in there."

"We know," Kayla said as she pulled a hood over her soaked hair. Randal nodded and then shook his head.

"Well, follow me then." Randal throttled up his swoop with a quick turn of the throttle and he was off, followed closely by Cal and Kayla on their own swoop.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 Cold Durasteel

The rain poured down torrentially, and the vengeful flash of lightning streaked across the sky, casting ethereal shadows across the mud covered ground. Kaul turned away from the rain covered window that looked out into the street and walked back to the center of the recently deceased Dalledo's office. The office was once an orderly and well maintained room while Dalledo was alive, but after the Sickle Riders returned with their prize, they raided the entire building looking for everything and anything to celebrate with. Kaul approached the intricately carved wooden chronometer that sat on the mantle above the fireplace and looked it over for a moment. To any who looked at it, it appeared to just be a simple clock, but he had seen what it was really built for. He reached behind the chronometer and flipped a small well disguised switch, which unlocked a mechanism deep inside. The top half of the chronometer lifted up, revealing Dalledo's most prized possession; a two hundred year old bottle of Corellian Brandy.

Kaul removed the crystal stopper and tossed it to the ground as he took a long gulp of the alcoholic fluid. It went down smooth, and had a slight burn that brought relief to his tired bones. Now that he had a Jedi to turn in for the immense reward, he could finally retire. True, he would miss the carnage of battle, but there were cheaper, less painful ways of going about bringing suffering to others. He smirked to himself as he thought about the first opportunity for such fun; after he collected the reward, he wouldn't need any of those idiots who were carrying on like a bunch of scatter brained Gungans down in the main garage. He would find a special amount of enjoyment in ridding the galaxy from those insufferable idiots.

Leaving the disheveled office behind him, he went down the stairs to the garage, where the other gang members were gulping down cheap rotgut booze and carrying on in a boisterous annoying manner. In the corner of the garage, suspended by her bound hands, was the Twi'lek Jedi that would bring him his fortune. She was still unconscious, but breathing. Kaul was honestly impressed with that, since he had thought that he had overdosed her with the tranquilizer. He had always heard that Jedi were more resilient than others, but he had to pump her full of enough tranquilizers to put a full grown bull Bantha down.

Kaul walked over to the unconscious Jedi and looked her in the face. He frowned to himself as he thought about the long and sorted history his people had with the Jedi. But looking at this one, he really couldn't see how such weak fragile creatures could beat the best the galaxy had to offer. He had heard that the Force granted them unparalleled power and abilities, but once you took that out of the equation, they were nothing more than flesh and bone; just like anything else that could be killed.

He turned back around, now with a wide malice-filled grin, and toasted his men for their great work. It wouldn't be long now before they got their just rewards.

* * *

Across the rain soaked street, on the roof of a three story building, Randal lowered his macrobinoculars and frowned. Though his clothes were thoroughly soaked with the frigid rain that was still coming down in torrential waves that when illuminated by the flares of lightning gave an eerie resemblance to a veil of an erotic yet deadly dancer, he didn't pay the discomfort any mind. The only thing he was concentrating on was the looming building directly in front of him, and the one person he would do anything for to bring out safely. But even without the pouring rain beating down on his head, he couldn't see anything inside other than the few rooms that had a light on. He had caught a glimpse of Kual in the upper office, but he didn't have Rika with him. Through one of the thinner windows, he could barely make out a doorway where he could see the swoop gang members moving, but other than a brief glimpse of a small area, the view didn't afford much.

"You see anything?" Kayla asked, her voice shivering with the rest of her drenched body. Randal shook his head, and handed the macrobinoculars to the two squatting down beside him.

"No, but they're in there. I can see a ship on their roof, so they haven't left yet. They must be waiting out the storm in there." Randal turned away from the ledge and leaned against the small rampart and unslung the disruptor rifle from his shoulder. He checked to see if one of the massive energy shells was in the chamber and closed the breach once he confirmed it.

"So what's the plan? Or do you even have one yet?" Cal asked as he put his arm around Kayla to help her get warm. Randal gave him a sideways look, but didn't say anything at the jibe.

"How many do you think are in there?" Randal asked. Cal peered over the rampart and looked through the small window with the macrobinoculars. After looking silently for several minutes, he ducked back under the cover of the small wall and shook his head.

"It's hard to tell, but I think I saw ten or fifteen different sets of boots." Randal nodded gravely and then wiped the rain off of his face.

"I need a way to get as many of them out of there as possible," he said out loud.

"The permacrete! Maybe if you blow something up, they'll go see what it is," Kayla said as she grabbed the bag and rummaged through it for one of the charges. Randal nodded and looked back over the wall and pointed to a water tower half a block away from the enemy's base.

"That should work. I'll take one of these and set it at the base of that water tower. I'll climb that building and get to the roof of their hangout. I'll give you the sign, and then you blow that charge. When they go out to see what happened, I'll break in and go to that garage. I'm pretty sure that's where they're holding her."

"What if they don't go outside?" Kayla asked, voicing the unthought-of scenario. Randal frowned and took in a deep breath before he stood up.

"Then I'll just have to kill every last one of those sons of bitches." Randal started to head towards the staircase at the rear of their building, but Kayla remembered what she had found and jumped up.

"Oh, I found this on the ground back in the village." Kayla held out the metal cylindrical weapon and Randal took it. He looked at it for a moment and then nodded as he departed. Kayla returned to where Cal was squatting, trying to use the small rampart as a shield against the rain.

"What should we do?" she asked. Cal checked the charge pack on his rifle and then slightly shrugged.

"Well, I guess once we hear some shooting, we'll shoot down from here." Kayla nodded and waited a moment before she asked the question on both of their minds.

"You think he's going to make it?" Cal raised his brows in answer, but didn't want to say what he really thought; neither did Kayla.

* * *

Randal paused at the edge of the alley and looked across the street at the Dalledo building. From ground level, he could see some light spilling out from the back room and the occasional shadow as one of the gang members walked past the open door. After confirming that no one was keeping a look out, he ran out and across the street. With the rain beating down on the once dust covered street, puddles of thick mud were scattered everywhere. As Randal ran, he jumped over one of these and took cover behind a building's wall next to the water tower.

He quickly crammed the permacrete charge beneath one of the support structures and then went to the ladder that would take him to the roof. The metal rungs were ice cold and slippery as a Hutt's backside, but he climbed carefully and made it to the top. From there he ran to the opposite side and stopped to look at the gap between this building and Dalledo's. It wasn't too far, only a meter, but it still presented a problem.

Deciding to just go for it, Randal backed up and took off at a run and jumped. While in the air, he panicked slightly when he thought he was going to fall short, but he landed haphazardly on the roof of Dalledo's, crumbled to the ground, and then rolled violently to a stop. He cursed to himself as he picked himself up, and hoped that the rest of this little rescue operation went better than that.

Randal moved past the silent ship on the landing pad and approached the only door that would lead to the lower levels of the building. After giving the door a once over, he went over to the ledge and tried to see if he could see Cal and Kayla across the street. He caught a brief glimpse of the two huddled together looking through the macrobinoculars when a flash of lightning streaked across the sky.

Randal waved his hand into the air, but when the lightning flashed again, the two were still huddled there together. He wasn't sure if they could see him or not, and he wished that he had brought a light or a flare to signal them. It was then that he remembered Rika's lightsaber. He took the cylindrical weapon off of his belt and ignited the blue blade high above his head. As he swung the humming blade back and forth, he was surprised that the blade carried an odd momentum with it. It was only a concentrated beam of light, so it had no weight, but as it moved it seemed to want to keep going as if it did. He would have found this interesting and would have continued to experiment, but his mind was elsewhere.

Across the street, both Cal and Kayla jumped when they saw the blade of the lightsaber flashing, and both reached for the trigger mechanism. Cal let Kayla flip the switch, but when it did, nothing happened. Cal took the remote in his hand and flipped the toggle several times in a row, but still nothing happened. After banging on it a few times and still nothing from the switch, Cal looked up and across the street. When another flurry of lightning streaked across the sky, Cal threw his hands up into the air and shrugged his shoulders.

"Perfect," Randal said as he saw Cal's sign. It didn't take much to realize that the charge had failed. Disgusted with his own failure, Randal turned back around and went to the door. Unlike all the doors in the village which were ancient hinged technology, this one was a pneumatic slider. Randal was certain that it would be locked, but tried the control panel anyways. The light only flashed red a few times and the door stayed shut.

He briefly thought about trying to hotwire the circuitry, but that would take too long. There was always the disruptor, but blowing the door open would signal the gang members that he was here; something he didn't want to do just yet. As he thought about some way inside, his hand brushed Rika's lightsaber that he had reattached to his belt. He had seen Rika use it to cut through metal before, and from what he remembered it didn't make that much noise.

Randal activated the blade and held the hilt firmly as he pressed it into the locking mechanism. The feeling was an odd one indeed, as if the blade was meeting significant resistance. As he continued to push, the hilt fought against him and seemed like it wanted to twist its way out of his hand. Randal held on firmly, and once a quarter of the blade was in, something clicked and the door slid open. He then deactivated the blade and reattached it to his belt. After listening to the sounds coming from downstairs for a moment, and after confirming that no one had heard anything, he silently entered the building.

From their vantage point across the street, Randal seemed to disappear once the lightsaber was deactivated. For a moment, both Cal and Kayla leaned forward and anxiously wondered what Randal was going to do now that the distraction hadn't worked. When another streak of lightning briefly illuminated the tops of the buildings, Randal was nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd he go?" Kayla almost screamed as she dug her fingernails deep into Cal's arm as her tension level rose. Cal shook his head quickly and frantically scanned the upper floors of the building to see if he could spot Randal inside through one of the windows. Briefly, he caught a glimpse of Randal walking slowly through a room and heading towards the staircase that led down to the ground level.

"He's inside," Cal said as he lowered the macrobinoculars.

"Inside?!? With all those thugs in there? He'll be killed! Do something!" she choked out hysterically. Cal looked around with a heavy sense of helplessness resting on his shoulders. What _could_ he do? The only plan they had failed; now there wasn't a way of drawing those swoop gang members out. In this storm, it would take something incredibly loud and noticeable to draw their attention, but now that the explosive was out of the picture, there wasn't anything he could do. But as if his prayers were answered, his eyes fell on the power converter station sitting outside of the building. If he could take that out of commission, the gang members would notice for sure.

"Hold on, I've got a plan," Cal said as he handed the macrobinoculars to Kayla and unslung his rifle from his shoulder. He took careful aim at the electrical station box, and let loose a well placed blast. The bolt hit the box square on, and ruptured the power cells within, sending a large shower of sparks flying into the air. The converter crackled for a moment, and then completely melted down with a loud shattering thud. Every light inside of Dalledo's building instantly turned off.

"You did it!" Kayla yelled happily, but Cal quickly put the rifle down and grabbed Kayla by the arm.

"Get down! They're gonna see us if we don't duck!"

Inside the building, Randal swallowed hard as he stepped into the Dalledo's dimly lit office. He could hear the music and constant chatter coming from the floor below him, but he still kept his ears open for any sound that was near him. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he caught a glimpse of Cal or Kayla on the roof across the street, but when he looked he couldn't see anything. Then, he saw a red hot blaster bolt fly out from Cal's rifle, the flare briefly illuminating his and Kayla's faces. Randal then saw a bright flash coming from the street level just in front of the building, and then all the lights flickered off with a sudden boom. Randal smirked to himself as he continued to move to the door that opened up to the stairway.

In the garage area, everyone went silent and didn't move an inch when the power went out.

"What was that?" one of the gang members asked aloud.

"Sounded like the converter blew," another said. Kaul narrowed his brow and put his mug down on the table and willed his eyes to adjust themselves to the low light. With a flickering dull yellow light, the emergency lighting clicked on, casting oblong shadows on the ground. Kaul continued to focus on any sound he might hear, but beyond the sounds of his own men moving nervously, he couldn't hear anything. He had of course heard the loud booming sound of the converter overloading, but found it hard to believe that a storm could knock something like that out.

"Griff, take a couple of men with you and check out the converter. Kill anyone you see out there." Griff nodded happily and he left the garage, followed by five other half drunk men looking for some excitement. Those that remained inside slowly let their anxiety melt away, and went back to drinking and carrying on.

Kaul couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, and walked to the entrance of the garage and looked out of the half closed doors at the pouring storm. Anyone would be a damned fool for being out in that, but he could think of one who would do so. Kaul turned back around and went back to his half empty mug, and after picking it up absent mindedly with his right hand, he got a burning feeling in the back of his mind, as if something were boring itself through him.

He started to turn around to see what it was, but he knew what to expect long before he brought him into focus. Randal Sarn stood in the doorway leading inside the building, soaked completely to the bone and dripping profusely. But what startled Kaul the most wasn't the disruptor cannon he carried in his hands, but the cold blooded look of a maniac in his eyes. Kaul had seen it plenty of times during battle; both in himself and other Death Watch members.

Kaul stared at Randal silently, giving the same bloodthirsty stare back. At first, the members of his gang didn't notice the intruder, but soon they did, and a cold chilling silence filled the room as they all stared wide eyed at the either incredibly brave or recklessly foolish man standing in the room.

Kaul slightly moved for his blaster, but Randal leveled the disruptor cannon at him with a shockingly quick speed. Randal sneered and slowly shook his head, never taking his eyes off of Kaul.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Kaul stared back at Randal for a moment, trying to gauge any weakness or opening that he could take advantage of. But unlike a normal person who wasn't acquainted with holding a weapon against someone's life and has a weak nerve, this Corellian wasn't showing any sign of an opening. Instead, he would have to create an opening.

"You can't win here, Sarn. Do you really think you can get the Jedi and get out of here alive? We'd cut you down long before you made it out the door."

"Maybe, but all I can tell you for certain is that you'd be dead," Randal answered coldly. Kaul slowly ran his tongue over his bottom lip and then leaned his head back to address his remaining men.

"All right, boys. He's only got six shots with that disruptor, and there's more of us in here. When he shoots, open fire on this son of a-" Randal had heard enough, and opened fire with a devastating explosion of energy laden tibanna gas, ripping a gaping hole into the abdomen of Kaul, sending his flailing remains to the floor.

At first, the remaining gang members were taken aback, both by the sudden attack and by the brutal nature of the disruptor blast. Before they could pull their weapons, Randal recovered from the recoil and fired again at one of the unlucky thugs. By the time his body hit the ground with a wet thud, the others had snapped out of their shock and were pulling their weapons out.

Taken out of their natural element of being the aggressors on those who were less inclined to defend themselves, the gang members fired wildly across the room, none of the shots coming anywhere near Randal.

Randal calmly continued to aim the cannon, and with brutal efficiency, continued to fire madly at the swoop members, savagely ending their lives with sickening wet splatters of remains as the disruptor blasts did their work.

After the third thug fell to the ground, the others that remained decided that continuing to stand and fight for their claimed prize wasn't worth dying over and they dropped their weapons and ran out of the back door.

Randal slowly lowered the cannon and briefly looked down at the carnage he had unleashed. Disruptors were one of the more rare weapons to be found in the galaxy, and even if someone had heard about them, few of those really knew what they did against an organic target. Some thought they turned their targets into ash, but compared to what they really did, ash would be a pleasant result. What they really did was completely mangle their targets as if they were mauled by a rabid gundark and spit out. Of the three thugs that lay on the ground, only two of them were even recognizable as being humanoid. The third was far less discernable. The image would have sickened even the most cold hearted being in the galaxy, but Randal mentally blocked it all out by knowing Kaul and his men would do far worse if the roles were reversed.

From behind him, he could hear the sounds of the other gang members running back, obviously alerted to the sounds of blaster fire. Randal quickly turned and raised the cannon back up to his shoulder, but didn't have to open fire. Instead, the roar of the familiar engines of the _Destrier_ screamed from overhead, and red hot bolts of laser cannon fire rained down on the other group, cutting them down before they could enter the building.

Randal pulled his comlink from inside his jacket and called Geefive. "Thanks for the assist. Land the ship; I'm getting Rika out of here." He put the comlink back inside his still soaked jacket and then started to step over what remained of his rampage. As he was about to near Rika's unconscious form chained to a hook on the wall, a bubbling cough caught his attention.

Reeling quickly around, Randal was able to kick the unholstered blaster from Kaul's blood soaked hand. Kaul forced his eyes open and looked at Randal as he coughed dark red blood.

"We're not that much different, you and me. We'd both destroy anyone in our paths to get what we want," Kaul choked out, bloody foam gathering on his lips the entire time.

"No, we're nothing alike. You enjoy doing this sort of thing. I only did it for one reason." Kaul coughed a large chunk of what was likely part of his lung up and struggled to spit it out of his mouth. With a last ragged intake of breath, he sneered at Randal and cursed him in his own language.

"_Mir'sheb aruetiise_..." Randal frowned at the words, not having heard that language in a long time. He watched as Kaul's eyes glazed over, and what sliver of life that remained in him passed on.

Randal slung the disruptor over his shoulder and went to Rika. He bent down to try to look her in the face, but she was still out cold. He lifted up her chin and tried to shake her awake, but still nothing. He could see that she was still breathing, so he went about removing her from her restrained position against the wall.

She was basically hanging by her bound hands, so with a quick cut with her lightsaber, she fell freely onto Randal's waiting shoulder. He picked up her unconscious body in his arms, and made his way out of the garage and into the storm, where Geefive had landed the _Destrier_ in the mud covered street.

When he reached the entry ramp, Cal and Kayla ran up from the other side of the street and followed him into the ship. Randal opened the door to Rika's cabin and laid her on her bunk. Cal and Kayla both looked on nervously as Randal checked her pulse and then pushed back one of her eyelids to see her dilated pupil.

"Is she going to be okay?" Kayla asked. Randal shook his head and stood up.

"She's been poisoned by something, probably a tranquilizer. I'm going to have to get her to a medic up on Ascension Station." Cal and Kayla nodded, and exited the small room before Randal left Rika lying peacefully on her bunk. The three then stood for a brief awkward moment in the main cabin. They all knew that this was farewell, but none of them knew how to say it.

"Well, you two take care now. Look out for each other, and try to stay out of trouble," Randal said with a forced smile. He meant it sincerely, but with Rika still unconscious and needing a doctor, his thoughts were going a light year a minute.

"Yeah. We can't thank the two of you enough for everything you've done," Cal said as he shook Randal's hand. Kayla bypassed Randal's offered hand and instead gave him a hug.

"You take care of her." Kayla then turned and whispered in Randal's ear only loud enough for him to hear. "And when she gets better, you tell her how you feel about her." Randal smirked and lightly shook his head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Now get going, and stay out of the rain." With a final wave, the young couple exited the ship and ran for the relatively dry cover of a building's awning. Randal hit the ramp controls and headed towards the cockpit. When he took his seat at the controls, Geefive whistled a concerned question. He wanted to know if Rika was all right.

"She'll be fine once we get to Ascension Station." With a quick lifting motion, the _Destrier_ lifted off of the ground and blasted away for space.

* * *

A/N: Almost done! Just one more chapter after this, and the second story in my continuing series will be complete. Stay tuned!


	10. Epilogue

Epilogue: Consequence of Action...

_Ascension Station, Dienzo System, Outskirts of Mid Rim_

She felt weightless, or rather, as if she were in a turbolift that was racing down and was coming to a stop. The sensation made her stomach turn and her head hurt, but the nauseous feeling told her one thing: she was alive.

Rika Tymor, fugitive Jedi Padawan and partner in a not-so legal transport business, lightly groaned as she tried to open her eyes, the bright light above her making her shut them instantly. As she forced her eyes shut, and willed them to focus in the blindingly bright light that was beating down even through her eyelids, she tried to get a sense of where she was and what was around her.

Through her natural senses, she could smell, hear, and feel the area around her. She was laying on her back, in a bed of sorts where the back was slightly elevated from the rest. The room, which was what she figured she was in, had a semi-harsh antiseptic smell. She could hear a constant droning murmur coming from a distance, and seeming to be coming from a single point, likely an open doorway. Closer to her, she could hear the rhythmic tonal beating of a medical instrument, likely a heart monitor since the beeps coincided with her heartbeats. She could also hear the sounds of fabric rubbing against itself close to her, likely someone who was sitting in the room.

Her eyes were still adjusting to the light, but she didn't need them to know who it was. Through the Force, she could sense her partner in crime- Randal Sarn, Captain of the _Destrier_. The feeling she got through the Force wasn't his usual signature, though. Instead of the usual brash and overconfidence that he normally exuded, he was emanating a nervous worry, shadowed by something dark and foreboding, though he was repressing it.

Giving her eyes another chance, she slowly opened them and looked to her right where she could see, though blurrily, Randal leaning back with his arms crossed, his head leaning back on the back of the chair in which he sat.

"W-where am I?" she asked softly, shocking herself at how frail her voice sounded. Randal instantly jumped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. He gave her his signature smirk, though she could see that he was forcing it through his own anxiety.

"Don't worry, you're all right. We're on Ascension Station in the med bay." Rika blinked her eyes a few times and tried to understand what he had said. How did she end up here? What had happened? The last thing she remembered was walking back to the _Destrier_, and the thunderstorm that was reigning overhead. But there was something else, a dark shadow that was directed at her. It was an attack!

"The village! They're under attack!" she coughed out as she tried to sit up drastically in bed, but before she even lifted her torso, the dizziness washed over her and she had to lay back down. Randal caught her by the shoulders and helped her back down.

"Don't worry about that. No one in the village was hurt; they were only there for you."

"What?" Rika asked, the dizziness wearing off now that she was back fully on the bed.

"Kaul tried to kidnap you to collect the bounty. He shot you with enough tranquilizers to put down a bull rancor," Randal said quietly as he leaned forward. Rika let out a slow breath through her nose. So she had brought this on herself, then. Randal had warned her about drawing attention to herself, and her brandishing a lightsaber during a fight was a definite way of letting everyone know who and what she was. But that was the past, and it couldn't be helped.

"Wait, you said tried?"

"Yeah. He tried to kidnap you, but me and Geefive got you back." She hadn't known that the diminutive astromech droid was in the room with them, but then droids didn't register themselves in the Force; least not in any way that Rika could sense them. At the mention of his name, the droid whistled and beeped and started to rock impatiently from side to side. Rika smiled at the third member of their operation.

"Well, okay. We had help from Cal and Kayla. But I didn't let them get into the line of fire."

"Well, I guess a thanks is in order. Thank you, Geefive, and thank you, Randal." Rika took Randal's hand off her shoulder and held it in hers for a moment. His eyes briefly met hers before he looked away. Rika looked around the small medical room that they were in, and then looked up at the ceiling.

"What about the village? Do you think Kaul and his gang will try to take it out on them?" Randal smirked, though it was half hearted and forced. Through the Force, Rika got a sudden jolt of that darkness she had sensed in him earlier, and for a brief moment it swirled around him like a vortex. But just as suddenly as it had come, it was pushed back down and out of the way.

"They won't have to worry about Kaul or any of his goons doing anything anymore," he said with a sullen yet firm finality. Rika slowly withdrew her hand from his and turned her head to look directly at him.

"What happened?" she asked. Randal looked back at her, but his eyes were focused on something else in the distance.

"Don't worry about that right now. Just get your rest." Rika would have pressed the issue if she wasn't so physically drained. Instead, she dropped the subject and closed her eyes.

She wasn't sure how much time passed, it could have been a minute or an hour, but she opened her eyes when she heard the sounds of servo motors entering the room.

"And how is my patient?" the female programmed medical droid said as it came along the left side of her bed.

"Better I should think," Rika said with a smile. It wasn't just lip service she was paying the doctor; she actually did feel much better than she did when she first awoke. The medical droid silently looked her over, taking her pulse with its sensor arm and then checking the dilation of her eyes with a lighted fingertip.

"So what's your prognosis, Doc?" Randal asked. The doctor leaned back from its stooping position over Rika and made a motion with its servo-driven chassis components that mimicked a shrug.

"I would say that it was a miracle, if such things were medically possible. You're quite the lucky one, miss. When you came in here, you had such a large amount of fluoperidol in your system, I was amazed that you were even breathing. My best estimate at the time was that you would be lost in a coma for the rest of your life, if you even survived the night. But the fact that you are not only conscious, but fully coherent, defies all logic of my neural processors. If I were a research droid, I would find it highly enjoyable to study your recovery, but since I am merely programmed for medical treatment, I am content with your recovery."

"So is she clear to leave?" Randal asked. The droid again did its version of a shrug and then turned to leave the room.

"If the patient feels that they are capable of walking out of this room, than I see no reason to hold her here any longer. I would advise to avoid any excessive amounts of sedatives in the future. Have a good day."

Rika sat up in the bed, and lightly threw her legs over the side and stood up. She had a slight sense of dizziness, but it passed as she took a deep breath. Randal and Geefive waited outside the room while Rika disrobed from the hospital gown and put her own clothes back on.

When she exited the medical station, she found the two waiting besides the entrance. Randal smiled at her and stepped away from the wall that he was leaning on and started to lead the way down the corridor.

"You know, you really had me worried back there," Randal said.

"I'm just glad you came to get me. Who knows what those thugs, or even the Empire, might have done with me."

"Yea, I'd rather not find that out ever. Oh, here. Kayla found this; I guess you can have it back- _if_ you promise to keep it out of sight, all right?" he said with a semi-seriousness as he handed back her lightsaber stealthily. There was no one around them, but it never hurt to be too careful.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind next time you're pinned down and need rescuing." Randal gave her a sideways look, but couldn't help from chuckling. Rika joined in, and they continued to walk down the corridor until they reached the entrance to a cantina.

"How about a drink?" Randal asked as he motioned towards the cantina. Rika smiled and lightly shrugged her shoulders.

"I wouldn't mind a cup of tea." Randal smirked and let her go ahead of him before he walked into the bar. Rika led the way and headed towards an empty table.

The cantina was longer than it was wide, with tables and booths on the left, and the bar on the right. A tall Bothan was behind the counter and walked back and forth serving the patrons seated at the bar.

As Rika took the seat with her back to the door (Randal refused to sit in that spot, and often said that her Force senses would tell her if there was any danger walking in, but he didn't have that luxury, so he preferred to see what was coming) she paused momentarily and turned back to the entrance. Randal took the opposite seat and raised a questioning brow.

"What is it?" he asked as Geefive rolled up to the edge of the table and retracted his third wheel. Rika continued to look towards the door for a moment, then shook her head and sat down.

"Nothing, I guess. For a second I thought I felt something." Randal's cautionary alarm went off, and he quickly scanned the entire cantina. They had travelled together for too long for him to ignore any of her "feelings" about a place. At first, nothing looked out of the ordinary. But the more he looked at the people around him, he could see rather than sense that they were on edge.

"Well something's up. Take a look at everyone in here; they all seem to be on edge."

"Yes, I sense a high level of anxiety in here. What could it be?" Rika wondered as her back went rigidly straight. Randal motioned for the waitress droid to come over, and with his free hand, undid the restraining clip that kept his blaster securely in its holster.

"Hi, what can I get for ya?" the waitress droid asked.

"I'll take an Alderaanian Ale, and she'll have..." he said as he motioned to Rika.

"I'll have a stim-tea, thanks."

"Coming up," the droid said as it started to leave, but Randal reached out and lightly touched its arm to keep it at the table. "Somethin' else?"

"Yea. You know why everyone seems so nervous in this place?" The droid briefly looked around and then lowered its round tray and spoke in a whisper.

"Everyone's on edge 'cause of that Imperial cruiser that's in the system. We usually don't see many of the bigger ships, so it's making everyone nervous. I don't know why, the thing isn't even coming here, it's headed in system."

"Thanks," Randal said as he let go of the droid and leaned back into the booth. After the droid left, he leaned forward and spoke softly.

"It may not be headed here, but I'd rather not be in the same system as the imps. After the drinks I think we should get back to the _Destrier_." Rika nodded, and Geefive twittered that he would go and get the ship ready for takeoff and then left.

When the waitress returned with the drinks, she placed them on the table and then handed a folded napkin to Rika.

"What's this?" she asked as she looked at the napkin. The droid shrugged and then made a motion back towards the entrance.

"Someone sitting at the bar wanted me to bring it to you." With that, the droid left to tend to another table. Randal leaned forward and waited for Rika to open it to see if there was anything there. Rika hesitated for a moment and then unfolded it. She stared at it for what seemed like an eternity in silence, her eyes wide with surprise. Rika quickly turned around to the bar, but there was no one there. Randal couldn't see what was on the napkin, and couldn't take the suspense any longer.

"Well, what is it?" Rika turned back around smiling widely, her dimples beaming in pure delight. She turned it to him and he looked at it. He cocked an eyebrow at the crudely drawn image and wondered just how a six legged beast of burden with a long tail and sloping head could make Rika so happy. Below the image, there was a number scribbled; 24b.

"I don't get it. What's that supposed to be? And why are you so excited about it?" Rika rolled her eyes and leaned forward, talking so fast that Randal wondered if her body was now having a reverse effect from the tranquilizers.

"This is a suubatar. It's a riding animal from Ansion. But that's only part of it. You see, when younglings are brought to the Temple and are first trained how to use the Force, they're put into groups, or clans as we called them. Each one is named after an animal. The one I was in was the suubatar clan! Don't you see? One of my clan mates is here! I've finally found another one!" Randal nodded his head and tried to calm her down.

"Okay, so it's a suubatar. But how do you know it's another Jedi? You sure it's not someone who just happened to draw a six legged thing and gave it to you because he drunkenly thought you'd like it?"

"Oh come on! That's just ridiculous."

"Okay, maybe. But what if it's an Imperial agent? Someone who recognizes you as a fugitive and is laying a trap for you?" Rika stood from the table and shook her head, her lekku swinging back and forth.

"It's what I've been searching for all this time, I know it. I'm going to meet them." Randal quickly counted out a few credit chips and left them on the table as he jumped up and ran after Rika.

"Hold on! Where're you going to meet them at?" Rika stopped and pointed at the number below the pictogram.

"24b, that has to be a docking bay, right?" Randal was about to say it could be anything, but the Bothan bartender spoke up from behind the bar.

"24b? That's down the corridor, opposite end of the station from here. Just keep walking that way and you can't miss it."

"Thank you," Rika said and then started off at a brisk walk, nearly breaking into a run in her excitement.

"Okay, okay. We'll go and see who this is, but don't get your hopes up. For all we know, it could just be an animal salesman trying to unload some of these things." Rika gave Randal a sideways look, but gently nodded her head.

"Okay, but when I'm right, you're buying the first round." Randal smirked and nodded, and together they headed towards docking bay 24b.

Rika walked at a brisk pace, and several times Randal had to either catch her by the arm or clear his throat to make her realize that she was almost running. When they reached docking bay 24b, she took in a deep breath and walked through the doors.

The bay was a large one, much larger than the berth that the _Destrier_ was in. This one must have been designed for large heavy freighters or ore haulers; all multi-person crews at the minimum. Several massive loading droids were placing plasteel containers into the hold of a long ship that Randal recognized, and was sure that Rika did as well.

"Wow, a Charger C70. You don't see those too often in civvie hands." Rika wasn't paying any attention to the ship, but was focused on the figure speaking with a protocol droid with their back to her, wearing a hooded dark green cloak. Whoever the mysterious person who had given her the note was, it had to be this one. Rika reached out through the Force to see if she could get a sense of the person's identity, but was puzzled by what she sensed; or rather, what she _didn't_ sense. Everything gave off some sort of emission that could be detectable through the Force if a Jedi focused enough, but for whatever reason, this person wasn't emanating any resonance in the Force. It was as if there was a blank spot that revolved around this one single person.

The figure must have sensed her puzzlement and turned around from the droid to face both Randal and Rika. Two slender hands reached out from up under the cover of the green cloak and pushed back the hood, revealing a human female, about Rika's age, with long blonde hair and gray eyes. She smiled at Rika and ran to her, grabbing both of Rika's arms and shaking her gently, like old friends seeing each other after a long time apart.

"Rika! I thought that was you in the cantina! You don't know how happy I am to see that you've survived! How did you do it? So many others didn't make it," she said as she trailed off with a slight frown.

"I was lucky, I guess. I've been searching for other Jedi ever since that day, and I was almost about to give up hope. I'm so relieved to find you alive and well, Orena." Randal didn't want to break up their reunion moment, but he felt left out. Rika must have sensed his uneasiness and smiled back at him and motioned to Randal.

"Orena, I'd like you to meet Randal Sarn. If it wasn't for him, I'd likely be dead or captured by the Empire by now."

"It's _Captain_ Randal Sarn. I keep having to remind her of that," Randal said as he offered his right hand. Orena took it and shook back firmly.

"Well, Captain Randal Sarn, I'm General Orena Melar, Jedi Knight of the former Republic." As she shook Randal's hand, Rika took a moment to look over her old clan mate. Orena wasn't garbed in the old Jedi robes that they both used to wear, but was instead wearing a pale green shirt with a conforming black vest over it. She wore dark blue pants that were also tight and were tucked into her tall black boots. Draped over her shoulders, and clasped together around her neck was her dark green hooded cloak, that now hung off of the edges of her shoulders. Around her waist she wore a typical gun belt with a blaster on her left in a cross-draw holster. But what shocked Rika the most was the fact that Orena still wore her lightsaber on her belt, out in the open on her right side.

"So the two of you know each other then, right?" Randal asked.

"Yes, we were in the same youngling clan as children." Orena turned back to Rika and smiled as she lightly shook her head. "I still can't believe that we ran into each other like this."

"Nothing happens by accident, or at least that was what the masters always told us." Both Rika and Orena shared a light laugh, while Randal rocked back and forth on his boots, still feeling like a third wheel. Their conversation was interrupted by the protocol droid, who was painted in an old military scheme.

"Sir! Tower control says that the Imperial cruiser is leaving orbit of Dienzo III and is heading to this station," the droid said in a stiff military sounding voice. Orena nodded firmly and turned back to Rika.

"I'd like to be able to catch up and see what you're up to, but I make it a habit of not sticking around when Imperials show up. If you'd like, we can set a rendezvous point up and meet there. Then we can talk more leisurely," Orena said with a hoping smile. Rika nodded and Orena reached into her vest and pulled out a notebook and tore out a flimsi page. She quickly wrote down a set of coordinates and handed them to Rika.

"We'll meet you there," Rika said and they both nodded their farewells; Orena headed back to her light frigate, and Rika heading towards the exit.

Randal fell in step besides Rika and looked over the flimsi. "I guess we're headed there, then?"

"Yes, if you don't mind," Rika said with a smile. Randal shrugged and put his hands in his pockets.

"No, I don't mind. Haven't got anything else to do." As the two headed back towards the _Destrier_'s docking bay, Randal started to notice that everyone in the station seemed to be wanting to leave in a hurry. Obviously they all heard that the cruiser was headed this way.

As they passed the cantina that they had gone into before, Randal stopped when he saw the Bothan bartender closing the security fence and locking the place up.

"You don't think the Imps are going to want a drink?" Randal said jokingly. The Bothan turned around and gave Randal a serious look.

"Those bastards can go burn in the core after what they just did." Randal's smirk was replaced with a frown as he caught the Bothan by the sleeve as he started to leave.

"What do you mean?"

"You haven't heard? Those stormtroopers went down to some small mining village, demanding that they give up a fugitive or something. When they refused, they opened fire. Killed every last one of them. Women and children, from what the report said."

"What was the name of the village?" Rika asked concernedly.

"Oh, it had some funny name. New Beginning, or something like that. Poor bastards, I guess it wasn't after all." Randal let the Bothan's sleeve go, and the bartender left. Randal didn't see or hear him go. He didn't hear much of anything at all. His knees felt weak, and his stomach churned violently. Rika touched him on the arm and drew him out of his trance.

"I can't believe it. They killed everyone there because of us; because of what we did. Giles, Otzz, even Cal and Kayla," Randal said quietly. Rika lightly nodded her head, and took Randal by the arm.

"Come on, we've got to get off of this station before they get here. Don't blame yourself. We didn't kill them, the Empire did." Randal lightly nodded and began to start walking again.

As they walked, Randal realized that he had been wrong. Before, he always felt that not getting involved and minding his own business was the best policy, but not after today, not after Dienzo III. Those people had every right to live as any other. No one in the galaxy would be safe from the Empire's tyranny as long as they existed. But if everyone felt the way that Randal had, then more people would die under the Empire's boot heel and freedom would be just a footnote in history. Someone had to stand up against them, and Randal swore to himself that he would do just that.

* * *

A/N: Well, there it is, the end of Way of the Blaster, Part 2 in my series. A darker ending, to be sure, but they weren't called the Dark Times for nothing. This story was fun to write, and honestly went very quickly (though the updates to this site certainly weren't, and I apologize for that.) I'm currently finishing up the rough draft of Part 3, and will likely be posting that some time in mid-late May. It takes place immediately after this one, and should be an interesting ride! Thanks for reading, and leave a review if you liked it! Keep an eye out for the next installment in the upcoming month!


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